My "Business" Suit for Dry Climates
by jimmyn4

Comment:
Talya's critique (critique club on break)
This was one of the most subtly done, yet most obvious occupations photos. I really liked the simplicity of it.
Composition - superb - I love that bright flag in the upper left hand corner. All the lines lead to the flag, and it is really well done. Plus I like how you made this a vertical photo, gives the look of standing straight and tall. Excellent job on this aspect!

Focus - i would have tried to have everything in focus here... the flag even looks maybe just slightly fuzzy. and it would have made the shot better if the whole thing were in focus. Also I'm not sure what happened on the very left side, but that out of focus piece is very distracting, pretty much the only thing I don't like about the photo.

Lighting and Exposure - both things are perfect on here... No complaints! It's well lighted all around, nice job!

Fit for challenge - truly perfect... I could tell right from the first second I saw it what you did. Really wonderful job, and good job of stating the obvious but not in an obvious way (does that make sense? HEHEHE) I thoguht this photo fulfilled the challenge better then many of the others.

Colors - good choice of keeping this in color, would not have been effective in Black and white.

Overall - fabulous job on this pic. I really liked it! I thought it was perfect for the challenge, and a very touching photo. The title was cute as well. I gave this an 8. Nice job!

-Talya

Searching For Signs Of Intelligent Life...
by GeneralE

Comment:
Talya's Critique (critique club on break)
This is a really beautiful and striking photo. I really like it!
Composition - beautiful, it wouldn't be half as good if you didn't have the extra layer of clouds at the very top. I might have cropped a little more off the bottom as it seems to lose some of the detail that the rest of the photo has.

Lighting - really superb, I love the colors that the light allows here. The extra bright spot at the very top is slightly annoying but not terrible.

Focus - excellent the overall clarity is really nice.

Exposure - great job with this!

Fit the challenge - really well, it's obvious there is no hand of man, and it's beautiful also. Definitely the best cloud picture of the challenge!

Overall - I gave this a 9. I thought it was really lovely! Nice job.

My healing hands: massage therapy
by kosmikkreeper

Comment:
Talya's Critique (Critique Club on break)
first off this is one of the few I gave a 10 for this challenge. Great photo, personally I think it should have placed higher.

Composition - excellent composition... good choice on using three of each hand. I love the sharpest hand as being the one that is just hitting the target! Great job with that. Also a terrific use of the body at the bottom of the pic.

Lighting - wonderful, no hot spots, even lighting. very nice job with that.

Background - I wish the background were solid black, and showed up solidly as black, that is my only comment for that. good choice of not using a distracting background. Excellent use of blank space at the back.

Fits the challenge - one of the best. even without the title, I knew what you were going for and that makes a great picture! I love the human interaction, it's really excellent.

Exposure - great job, everything is perfect

focus - the body looks maybe a tad bit soft, but thats it. Otherwise great job here!

Overall - I love this photo, it got the point across, it's well done, very creative, and great looking! Great job!

-talya

belly
by shutterfly

Comment:
This is a great photo, I like the coloring you used for it, very soft and nice. I love the way that the shirt just peeks in from the top, and the jeweled belly button is very modern! Only thing I don't care for is the lighting. The dark rightside bothers me, and detracts from the photo somewhat. -8-

Two by Four, Eight Feet Long
by DougPaz

Comment:
This is adorable. Great lighting, good composition. Really beautiful. I don't care much for the brown border, but to me this is still a solid 10! Nice job, and good luck!

Endurance
by KarenB

Comment:
Critique Club

Composition - this is as classic as it gets in terms of composition. Really beautiful the way your focus is directly in that top left corner and there your eyes are kind of naturally led around the picture.

Exposure - great job. Love the way you can see every vein in the leaf. Also there are no overtly bright spots which is much easier on the eye.

Color - Though I like the color, it would be interesting to see what this photo would have looked like in black and white, or possibly sepia. I like how the only color in the photo is really your focus though too... just curious to know how it looks in b/w

Focus - great DOF. I love how the focus is purely on the leaves and the branches fade into the background, gives it a more artistic look.

Background - great job with the blur, and nothing in the background is really distracting which is a great quality.

Fit for Challenge - Free Study, anything goes.

Lighting - very nice... no complaints here

Wowability - this is where you lost a few points with me. though this is a well executed beautiful photo there is no real wow to it. The colors are really dull, and nothing really pops out and says look at me.

Final Comments - an excellent photo that is somewhat boring but pleasant. Nice Job.

Driftwood
by Gracious

Comment:
Critique Club

Composition - absolutely beautiful. I love the fact that you do not have the hole in the middle, the offset really adds to the picture.

Exposure - Excellent on the wood that surrounds the entire photo, not so great on whatever is inside the hole, but that is very tough to get the right exposure for both things.

Color - love that you have it in black and white! makes it very dramatic looking, and it would have not been good in color, especially because whatever is in the hole may have drawn away from your subject if it was in a brighter color

Focus - great, no complaints!

Background - what you can see through the hole kind of bothers me.... I can't tell what it is, maybe a lower dof might have blurred this more, or opening the dof more might have helped so you could tell what was inside. It does leave curiosity to the mind though, which is intriguing in a photo.

Fit for challenge - free study, anything goes.

Wowability - this is a really cool photo that catches your eye. You definitely say WOW!

Final comments - great job on this, you got a great placing. It could have been better only by what was in the hole in the wood! Good job and congrats!

Fast Water
by Morgan

Comment:
Critique Club

Composition - personally I think your composition works... I can really follow the water from the upper right hand corner to the bottom left. I think it's very pleasing.

Exposure - I'm not sure what went wrong with the exposure here... it looks like the top right is too dark, and the bottom left underexposed. Maybe switching where you were standing may have helped with that.

Color - this is kinda of in between. I can't really tell whether it's black and white or navy and white, though I suspect it's black and white. I think the blue of the water, if it is black and white, may have been more pleasing.

Focus - fabulous focusing!

Background - not really any background here, as far as I'm concerned.

Fit For Challenge - shows something moving, but comes very close to complete stop action... don't really feel that the water is continuosly running.

Lighting - The lighting is much too harsh on this picture, it is also uneven. Was this shot around noon? There are a lot of hot spots on the main part of the water fall

Wowability - this has the potential to get a WOW! but it doesn't quite make it... the lighting lacks as does the exposure, which effects the entire picture.

Final comments - nice job, you did very well in the challenge. This picture has a lot of potential.

E-Motion
by kandyj

Comment:
Critique Club

Composition - I don't care for the composition here... there wasn't much you could do about it after the fact because the woman's head behind her would have been cut off. Consequently the main subjects head is in a rather akward place and her hands aren't really where they draw attention either. Also the bright orange behind her draws your eye from the subject. maybe getting at a different angle may have helped the photo.

Exposure - The exposure seems ok here... nothing that I can really see wrong.

Color - The main subject is rather dull and the women behind her have color, this detracts from the photo. I may have tried this photo in black and white.

Focus - Even the parts that should be in focus are blurry, this was probably not due to the fact that you weren't in focus, so much as the fact that you were shooting at a very low speed, hand held and had some camera shake.

Background - the background is quite distracting in this photo... maybe trying for a different dof might have been good for this photo (blurring the background some)

Fit for challenge - personally I think this photo fit the challenge very well. I love the way that she looks excited hence the name, and her hands are obviously clapping. Wonderful job on fitting the challenge!

Lighting - good use of available light, which isn't always easy to do.

Wowability - no real oomph here. Maybe it was personal wow, but for the rest of us, not knowing the person or what she was clapping for made the picture rather boring for us.

Final comments - obviously you were going for a candid here, and the fact that the woman is looking directly at the camera doesn't help. Great following of the challenge though.

Prickly Pear
by goodtempo

Comment:
I find this photo to be both visually appealing, and well composed. I absolutely love this photo, and the black and white looks wonderful. Also I think the black border adds to the photo.l Excellent macro! This photo meets the challenge and manages to be beautiful at the same time. No criticism here. -10