The Shape of Music
by ericpi

Comment:
I love the way its in total silhouette .. all except for the neck gusset

Passions
by Dax-

Comment:
It almost has a fine art painting quality to it ... interesting. I think you'l probably already have a lot of fcus comments

Angel Flew Too Close To The Ground
by Coley

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::
Well Cole, a great image and a great result. There's nothing insightful that I can offer that hasn't been said by the commenters. Most of them probably know more than I do anyways :)

First Impression - the most important one:
I have to confess that I was looking over Kari1's shoulder when I first saw this. She was ecstatic and I didn't fully understand it. Perhaps I may be excused because I was behind her chair and saw the wings, but not as them belonging to the model. From back there the model looked like just an observer and too centred. But what do I know, everyone else loved it and that's what matters.

Composition:
Balance, poise and framing, it has them all ...
- The tree forming the left border really does work so well. Some comments were made about it but I can think of no treatment better than this for it.
- The overhanging branch provides a natural and perfect border on top.
- There is a brilliant Leading Line from the bottom left to top right as well. It starts at the bottom of the tree, goes right through her head, follows her line of sight to the wings.
- The wings, according to the flow rule, then stop the eye from leaving the image.

Subject:
What can you say except perfect. Funny, engaging, challenging, quirky, unexpected ... the list goes on and on. It's what has attracted so many great comments. I haven't done a count but I have the feeling that there's more comments on this Blue than on many others. It stirs a reaction in people and you can't ask for better than that.

I don't know if you guys broke the branch but hey, it just makes the image 100% complete. It's subtle and as such takes time to find. Yet another reason to keep exploring this picture. One of it's great features is that a story is told. People can engage in your story but they can also invent their own. That's one of the secrets of good novel writing, to let the reader(viewer) fill in the gaps for themselves. Sometimes less is more.

Technical (Colour, focus, and light):
Who would have thought of a black angel, yet she's the perfect foil for the superb whiteout behind her. She is the same colour as the tree and branches. Several commented positively on the monochromatic feel and it does work here without having to resort to gratuitous B&W.

Your halftones are extremely good. The detail in the snow is so easy to loose yet here it has texture, form and depth while still holding the detail in the tree bark. I don't know if people fully appreciate how difficult a balance that is.

Yes, you do need to get your sensor cleaned :)

To grow its vote?:
I hope you'll forgive me for putting this in perspective as I hope that's the purpose of the critique process. This wasn't a great DPC score. I think this was one of the lowest scoring and least inspiring challenges that I've seen but Angel was a star among the thorns (love mixing metaphors). Despite the laudatory comments, the vote of 7.0346 has room for even higher things, so why didn't it score 8+?

My only thoughts on that would be around the centering of the angel. I can't think of any other thing that you could modify without destroying its integrity. I'm very much against vote-chasing for the sake of it. Many good story-telling images have been destroyed by doing that.

Summary:
Despite the fact that I wasn't inspired by it on the first look, like several commenters, it is an image that draws you back to it and every time you go back, there is something more to see. Looking at your body of work there's definitely an air-theme there in you honourable work isn't there (not a pilot are you?).

It's been fun, thanks for the giggles and the opportunity

Brett

What Do You See...?
by front_element

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::
Welcome to DPC Paul and your first Challenge. Now this is one of the more interesting images I've had for critique

First Impression - the most important one:
"Wow, what is that?" It has a slimy octopuss look at one point and then a psychedelic cathederal. Great fun image.

Composition:
The image has got a creepy, slightly sinister feel about it. It really can't conform to any of the composition rules, it is its own rule. That's what is attractive about abstracts. They challenge convention and push the boundaries.

One of the interesting visual tricks I find with this is that you'd swear you are looking at a 3D tunnel into that cabbage. Even though I keep telling myself its flat, the patterns in there just makes it look like a long deep tunnel - very very cool.

Subject:
What can you say about half a cabbage! :) This is a great subject. Quirky is good and as we can see from the comments, it tickles peoples imaginations - as I'm sure you had every intention of doing. Well thought out subject, it takes a good experienced eye to see these everyday things as photographic subjects.

Technical (Colour, focus, and light):
I wasn't sure if the commenters were right about it being slightly OOF so I downloaded it and found that I could sharpen it. I have a feeling that the original is as crisp as the cabbage.

In case you've not picked up what happens with sharpness for the DPC submission size images. A perfectly sharp full sized image that is reduced to 640x will always need sharpening after reduction. In this case, it looks as if you might have sharpened it beforehand but not after?

The lighting and colour of the image are realy good. There's that slight glistening of moisture which gives it life, perhaps that of an alien lifeform :)

How hard did you push the post-processing? When I did the minor sharpen, there was quite a bit of noise appeared. It's difficult to know if that is the cellular structure of the cabbage or the levels being pushed hard.

To grow its vote?:
There are many subjects and treatments that are fine photographs but are never going to get a huge popular vote. Nor should they, because they would have to be compromised to do so. A 5.7 score is an above-average one, I can only see sharpness as getting you more and only then if it didn't aggraqvate that grainyness

Summary:
Great pic, I loved it. Going out on a limb and pushing boundaries is what doing great art is all about. Well done, we look forward to more from you in DPC.

Brett

Margaritaville
by EricMGB1974

Comment:
Beautiful still life ... spiloed a little by the title (which I don't understand)

Sky Tower reflection, Auckland NZ
by blanceric

Comment:
Wow, I love this image. A couple of things though which may cause your score to disappoint you. 1) The image looks to be tilting right when really the perspective has bitten you. It probably could benefit from a left rotate in any case. 2) Being a Shape challenge, you have broken up the shape so that it's not recognisable. Don't be discouraged though, it's a great architectural shot.

Sand Castle
by DigitalVita

Comment:
Mmmm. Godo colour, good light, great composition, simple relevant title and meets the challenge :)

Galileo's Legacy
by blurredvision

Comment:
Yep, lovely, really good colour vs the checkers. You nailed the composition

Shadow
by Evaan

Comment:
Wow, that's something! I can't fault it photographically as its not only a great image, it tells a story too. Is it a strong shape image? Perhaps not as much. But I predict a ribbon anyway.

Dog Day Afternoon
by mrmorris

Comment:
And the shape is ... ?