Opposite Reaction
by crabappl3

Comment:
One of my favorits this time: lives from symmetry, the combination of sharpness with blured motion and from the earthy colors. Most amazing to me is how well you made all swings and post sharp and the grass and far distance blurred to produce the right background.
Very well done. Good luck to you.

Still Waters
by amsmyth

Comment:
Hi Anne;

Wonderful picture of a truly sacred natural place. One can hear the silence and feel the refreshing, calm morning.

A slight issue is of course the foreground bush: cropping it away wouldn't work here. The symmetry would get broken and most important the lake would get too narrow. But it needs to be enough distance between the lower border and the rock to make the rock "fly" in the sky.
So you did choose it just right.

Congrats afterwards for your 4th place,

Jörg

On the edge
by bormic

Comment:
Content/Composition
The content is of course very simple, but by taking the challenge topic very literally it fits just right. You also did chose a fully symmetric composition, which was a strong, hence good choice. There might be different interesting angle of view to the same subjects, but then it wouldn't be your image anymore. So you did a great job here.
Also the relation between the pea and the plate was well set by your cropping.
Speaking of cropping: that's of course one of the most important part in your image. It makes a great balance between the black and white part. Very well done!
Light is also set greatly. I like the variation of bluish greys on the plate and the same subtle variations of green on the pea. Also that any harsh reflections has been avoided has to be noted. Thumb up!
Only the black should be featureless (first I thought it was dust on my screen:)). Of course, pure black (as well as pure white) is one of the most complicated tasks.

Camera work -technically
Nothing special to mention here: focus is great (not much to focus though) and exposure excellent.

Digital Processing - Technical
Can't see anything special worth mentioning.

Fits the challenge
Of course it does.

Good luck for you further submissions.

Jörg

Little Creek
by bioshore

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
What a wonderful place: everything looks so fresh, especially the plants. One even can hear the water bubbling. It has some compositional imperfections and also some regarding the light.

Content/Composition
As already mentioned the place for itself is beautiful and using the little creek as guiding line to the waterfall is well thought out. The post in the foreground is however disturbing a lot: it's not meant to be a focal point (at least it's not sharp) and it's also not helping to pass your intention to the viewer. Therefore it should have been avoided in the first place or cropped out later (works fine, I tried it). Maybe zooming in a bit more would have helped too: it would have focused the attention more on the water fall.
Also there is something looking like a lake or so on the upper right: it reduces the feeling of looking into a rain forest a bit. Cropping wouldn't have helped here, because then the creeks waterfall would stop just at the image border. Maybe moving somewhat to the right would have helped.

Camera work -technically
Focus and colours are great, only the exposure has some problems IMO: the suns shines too bright onto the stones, making them a little overexposed. Of course, going one EV down or so would not help, because then the nice leafs on the left would have turned out to dark. While the sun light works fine on the palms, for the stones they are too much. Probably taking the image at a different time of day (early evening) would have been better, but that might have not been possible. As you see, my comment on exposure is actually a compositional comment.

Digital Processing - Technical
It seems as if you sharpened digitally after the frame was added. This leads to a two pixel wide artefact around the image. Better sharpen first and as the last step add the border.
Otherwise sharpening is well done and hue/saturation are nicely set

Fits the challenge
It does not depict "on the edge" to strong, but still, it somehow fits, especially compared to other entries.

Good luck for you further submissions

Simple japanese winter decoration
by radur

Comment:
Interesting subject. Not tacky, but very different so it fits well for me.
It's captured a little to straight: while the angle of view is just right (it hangs from a roof, doesn't it?) light is not very attractive. The background is nice.

What Time Is It?
by StevePax

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
Not very special, just another jewellery image, why is there so much space on the upper left. What happens to the glass of the watch, seems turbid.

Content/Composition
Presenting jewellery in a macro challenge is a good idea, while not new. The watch you selected looks fine to me: not very shinny and new, one sees that it has been used for some time. The chain segments are solid made and strong, that's also good in my opinion.
Placing it on a white surface is also fine: very neutral. And you managed it to make it pure white: thumb up for that. Also the shadow of the watch is well made: no harsh and sharp edges and also the shadow is not too dark.
This part shows the effort you put into the image!

In your composition the element of negative space is a bit too much: to me there is no need for having it. Also the watch is reduced to a 2-dimensional object (only the shadow give some depth). Of course a watch is more or less 2D, that's why they are most times shown rolled up, thus giving some volume, or by using a lower angle of view.
The watch is to me not too appealing because of the turbid glass: can't tell if its an artefact of the image or the glass itself. Also the overexposed reflections are too much: some bright spots are fine to make an object look shiny, but here there are too large sections overexposed.

One personal suggestion: because the watch isn't brand new, you could have gone much closer and try to work out the signs of usage. Together with an appropriate title this would have scored probably higher. Your technical skills for sure are great.

Camera work -technically
Could be a little sharper, but overall fine. Beside the reflections, exposure is good too.

Digital Processing - Technical
You could have increased the contrast a little bit to make the image more dynamic. Also a little more sharpening would have helped in the same direction

Fits the challenge
Of course it does!


Good luck for you further submissions!

Peckish
by Imagineer

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Initial thoughts/My opinion
First thought: awesome pose of the pigeon. It's one of those pictures where one looks and waits for the next thing to happen. To me a special kind of "stopped motion".
Second thought: wonderful contrast between the colourful bread and variation of greys.

Content/Composition
It's a close-up, but that's just right. Everything is well arranged (rule of third) and the two elements (sandwich and bird) are well linked by the look of the pigeon. Focus is set very well: sharp on the objects of interest. The narrow DOF works very well on the feathers of the birds wing: reduces it to a nice texture and thus leads the viewers eyes to the bird's head.
However, the narrow DOF doesn't work for me at the very bottom: it results in an diffuse, a little brighter appearing band. Maybe that can be darkened a little using PS.
The sandwich is arranged just right: looks tasty (beside the dirt of course), "shiny" and bright. Also that it's taken partially apart is nice.

Camera work -technically
Nothing worth mentioning beside that is very good.

Digital Processing - Technical
The partial desaturation works wonderful to produce the right mood. Also it's neither too smooth or oversharpened: just on the spot

Fits the challenge
Of course it does.

Good luck for you further submissions

Eat Drink and Be Merry!
by lizzyc3

Comment:
Very creative! To sad that it's so dark and fuzzy. Still a 7 for me.

Screaming Windshield Osmosis
by librodo

Comment:
Wonderfull colors! Something for a color-cahllenge.
Nice perspective too. It does not fit the challenge too well, but it's nice to see something different here.

Expect to see the reindeer calves in their yard next Christmas!!
by jpb323red

Comment:
LOL! Very creative! technically It cold have been improved by not using the flash but rather a lamp. But maybe that wasn't possible! A 8 for me.