Natural
by igoofry

Comment:
Nicely composed, good lighting and detail on your attractive models face and the fall background is a perfect setting for 'candid' portraits.

It could be that my monitor calibration is off, but she looks to have a bit of a red color caste in her face to me. If so, there are a couple simple, elegant ways to correct that in post processing that give fantastic results...

One, create a Curves adjustment layer, select the red channel and drag the center point AWAY from the word 'red'. Two, create a Hue/Sat adjustment layer, select 'red' from the popup menu and drag the slider left on the saturation slider to desaturate the red. You will be pleased with the result either way.

Cheers
by silverscreen

Comment:
Beautifully composed, good technical quality

I took the bokeh less travelled by
by posthumous

Comment:
Hmmmm... I like the concept but the implementation doesn't seem to work so well. I'm not trying to be harsh but will make some comments...

I agree with the philosophy that an image with soft focused areas technically contains bokeh. But in a challenge about bokeh it needs to jump right out at you and say, "Now THAT'S bokeh!", otherwise it looks like any other soft focused image. Most good bokeh pictures are taken with the lens wide open for nice circular point light sources and with a shallow depth-of-field where the main subject is in sharp focus and the bokeh somehow highlights that main subject in a special way. All that is missing in your picture. That explains most of your low score.

The overall technical quality is poor but I suspect that may have a lot to do with the camera you are using. You want to know your equipment's limitations and work them to your advantage when possible.

The shadow in the foreground is distracting to viewers. That destroys the whole idea of your picture. This needed to be taken at a different time when the shadow was not there and/or post processed in a way that adds pleasing attention to the shadowed area.

This picture looks like it is strait out of the camera. That implies that you may be new to photography and/or unfamiliar with post processing. In the world of photography today you need to develop those skills. Fortunately, DPC is a good resource for helping you learn them.

Standing Alone
by daboardergirl

Comment:
Composition is fine and the multi-colored background works well. It is a bit softer focus on the main subject than I prefer, but then I have a tendency to oversharpen. lol!

The mottled bokeh background gives this image an impressionistic painting feel to it that works for me, but I suspect some voters will interpret it as 'bad' bokeh.

Autumn Woody
by fordmanf1

Comment:
Nice yellow background bokeh. Composition, technical quality, overall focus and lighting is fair. It would have been nicer if your main subject was a darker cooler color then the bokeh color. That would highlight the main subject better.

Ahhhhh... I see several issues in your image I faced in my bokeh trials. I can see the shape of your aperture baffles in the bokeh so know that you stopped down your lens. To get nice circles you have to shoot wide open.

Even stopped down you did not get enough depth of field to get woody totally in sharp focus. You may have intended it to be soft focused in the foreground but I don't think so. My guess is you were compromising aperture and DOF to get the best bokeh possible which forced a shallower DOF than you wanted. To get a totally sharp focus with nice circular bokeh for point light sources you need to have a flat main subject. That is how I overcame the DOF problem.

Fall, a Tree's Perspective
by fas-ligand

Comment:
Composition, color, tonality and the way color contrasting is used with the bokeh as a supporting element to the main subject are the strengths of this image. I like the diagonal arrangement of the leaf and your attention to detail by placing the stem exactly in the lower left corner.

Rejuvenate
by Jason_Cross

Comment:
Adding a laverder/blue color cast to this image works well. The composition is and technical quality of this image is excellent. The bokeh is unusual and gives the supporst the main subject very well. Nicely done!

Beautiful Bokeh
by Paige

Comment:
Gorgeous portrait, nice smooth tones and the bokeh is like a rose clipped to your subject's hair.

A Little Pixie Dust
by scarbrd

Comment:
Great expression capture. Wonderful clarity in the eyes. You did a great job getting making it look as though your subject is looking up at the bokeh. That is a very clever idea. The soft focus of the arm and hand is a bit of a distraction but otherwise is a beautifully crafted image.

From the Sea
by DeniseBernadette

Comment:
Very pleasing and beautiful circular bokeh. Would like to see more light on your shell and the edging on the sheel, particularly on the right side, looks artificial and is a distraction from an otherwise superb image.