Burnt Out
by Psyche

Comment:
Not a unique concept but one that fits the challenge well. Focus is a fundamental issue with all dogital imaging. This image seems soft focused. The DOF is that no-man's land where it is either too shallow or not shallow enough.

Refugees
by e301

Comment:
Terrific image. Perfect as taken from behind with the bight light overhead. Great tones and a good full rnage from black to white.The forground guy that is out of focus is a little distracting but not that bad. Voters will easily see this as meeting the challenge.

Eternal Darkness
by jasm8

Comment:
Nice shallow depth of field. The color is good if not slightly over exaggerated. It is a little unclear what is going on in this image. It is too bad the green plant is in the front where it is a little distracting to the overal composition.

Mystic River
by ingvar

Comment:
Nice concept that might be better in B& W rather than color. Misty subjects five great tonal range that are perfect for B&W. This image has a bluish unnatural color most apparent on the trees to the right that detract from this otherwise wonderful image.

The Watcher (Did you lock YOUR door tonight?)
by Patrol

Comment:
Interesting concept, well executed. B&W works well. should score fairly well.

feeling dark
by nikant

Comment:
Good concept tried by others in this challenge. It is a great technique for a challenge of this nature. Nice perspective. There is an overexposed triangle on the subject's forehead that should be toned down with a bit of burning. Unsure if the neckwear adds or detracts from the composition.

Stealing the sun
by thelucas

Comment:
A good surrealistic image regardless how it was achieved.

Having taken a lot of lightining images myself it is obviously this is not natural. Certainly there will be voters that feel you are trying to pull something over on them and will vote it lower because of that.

It appears there are fingers or something that is not a natural gelogic feature coming in from the left side of the frame that is alluded to in the title. Be intersting to see how voters react to this image.

"Are you ready for me?"
by blanceric

Comment:
I've went on four or five photo safari's specificall to capture turkey vulture images in the last several weeks and did so during the challenge week but was unable to capture anything worthy of submission for this challenge. I like catching them in the early morning sunning themselves like you have here.

It is a good capture but the background is overwhelming of the bird. This can be corrected by reducing the background brightness by 10-30 percent and possibly reducing it's contrast as well. You might try to add some bright highlights to the bird to make it stand out above the background. Unsure if this is better as sepia or would be better as B&W. You might try both to see what you think.

Scottish to the Core
by bravo six

Comment:
Voters will certainly question it's inclusion in a darkness challenge but not this one. I'm of scottish descent and understand. :)

This is a great introspective candid capture. the tones are good and the background detail perfectly fits the image. This should score higher than it probably will.

Taps
by SCI 009

Comment:
Good concept and great angles on the tombstones. Black and white is a good choice for this image. It might be even better if you increased the contrast in the image and gave it a true black point. Unfortunately the detail between the stones seems mottled and a little distracting to the overall image.