Happy Mother's Day
by RaeK

Comment:
lovely DOF, would like more detail on the flower... reds almost run together

i stay up all night
by jmritz

Comment:
jmritz perhaps?

Beneath the streets
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
Thumbnail drew me in on this one and I love it... I wish people didn't vote free studies so harshly and just took it as "Wide Open Subject" and then just assessed the quality of the photo.

This one is great... great tones and depth of interest.

Serenity
by hahn23

Comment:
Great job! Mine looks almost exactly like yours!!! :)

Empty of All Thoughts
by CNovack

Comment:
I did not vote on this image. I thought the font was either faked or just poorly done. Lots of work as I can tell, but the net result doesn't look like a spill to me. That said, the border was distracting and unneeded (not a widescreen shot. The composition also didn't work for me. Had I voted on it as it stands, I would have given it a 5. (Sorry)

Deflated
by markwiley

Comment:
Nice work

The Birdcage
by vawendy

Comment:
Congrats

Did You Really Think You Had A Chance Red? Now You Owe Me A Beer.
by Venser

Comment:
Ironic... you had the same number of 1s as the other entry, but more 10s, yet you still get the brown. :)

Spring Runoff
by chazoe

Comment:
Little shocked this one didn't do better. Looks wonderful to me... perhaps the odd angle?

The Venus Representative
by Sebi

Comment:
I think it's the composition. Forget the hands. Focus on the face and crop a little tighter...

Also the eye goes to the light and he's the darkest thing in the photo... get rid of some of the background light with either a faster shutter or reduce ISO and bounce the flash.

In PP, you can add a levels layer set to multiply mode and it will dark. Using the layer mask you can restore the lightness to the main character and use gradient fill to create diminishing light.