Dining with the Devil
by PeterPic

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

I didn't vote on this challenge so this is the first time I've looked at your image critically. As shown by your score, you executed your idea pretty well. As shown by the comments, there are a couple of things that could have been done differently to achieve a higher score, mostly the lighting at the stem and base of the wine glass. I really don't have any suggestions on how to better light this image but it would be fun to play around and see what could be done.

I also noticed that the pattern etched into the glass was a love it or hate it proposition. My guess is that your score would not have suffered if it was not there but did just a bit because it was. My own personal opinion is that the etching is a distraction and interferes with the impact of the flame.

The quality of this image would have rated a 6 or 7 in my book, depending how it compared with the other entries. I like this image and I would be proud to have it in my portfolio if I were you.

Tim

100 divided by 3
by Nuzzer

Comment:
Gerry,

I'm not sure I agree with your Post Challenge comment. Three of the comments you received summed it up very well, "Sorry, can't see the relation to the challenge", "I would like to see the lines on the album in better focus", and "Be careful. People may not understand that". The way your image was presented, the "lines" were the secondary subject. By far, the needle and arm are much more prominent and visually, the primary focal point. If I had voted in this challenge I would have given you a 5 because you met the challenge but your subject choice was weak for the challenge description. Coincidentally, that seems to be what the final score for this image ended up being. Hope this helps you better understand the placement of your entry.

Tim

ARORA of the FIRE
by FocusPoint

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

Well Leo, this is the second image of yours I've had the privilege of critiquing. I didn't vote in this challenge, so this is the first opportunity I've had to view your image. On a personal level I love it. The flow lines of the flame truly does remind me of the one and only time I saw the Northern Lights in person.

As for the Fire II challenge, by reading the comments left during the challenge, it is easy to see that those who took the time to study the photo caught your connection to the Northern Lights. However, for some, they did have to read the title to make that connection. As you are probably aware, if they have to read the title, then you probably won't score that well. Plus, your scored suffered from the lack of the infamous DPC wow factor.

On the technical side, the noise and blurriness of the flame effectively creates the feel of the Northern Lights. However, there is a little too much negative space in this image. If you intersect the flames with the right and left border of the image and remove about 2/3 of the dark area at the top, the red portion of the flame become a very strong focal point in the image. Interestingly enough, if you rotate the image 180 degrees with the suggested cropping and bump up the green saturation just a little, the remaining dark area takes on the look of pine trees and the flame really does look like the northern lights behind them. The trouble is, if you submitted an image with my suggestions for this challenge, the voters wouldn't have made the connection to Fire and your score would have suffered from the DNMC crowd.

You took a very simple everyday item and made an image with a lot of artistic potential. I think Imay borrow your idea and give it a try for myself if you don't mind.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

water water...Am I the cutest camera?
by honikum

Comment:
Anil,

Per your PM, I̢۪ve taken a stab at your Camera Self Portrait entry (Click on the thumbnail below). Just so you know, the file size was kind of small (99kb), so the results are not a good as if I had the original to work with. First thing I did was to crop the photo so the framing from by the pot was uniform on the left and right side of the image. Second, I adjusted the contrast using Levels. My levels settings for the input were Black 21, Gamma (Middle) 1.6, and White 221. I use Paint Shop Pro X but I think the Photoshop uses the format for levels. I also used USM (Radius 1, Strength 60, Clipping 5) before saving the image. As you can see there is a lot more detail in your face and the camera with this simple adjustment.

As I stated in my PM, I highly suggest you play with the fotomann tutorial for B&W conversion on this image. It works a lot better than desaturation.

Tim

parking
by agenkin

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

Welcome to the world of Does Not Meet Challenge. As you can tell by your score, your choice of subject was not well received. Most of the voters were looking for things that moved. In my case, I gave you a 6, as I thought your entry was rather well thought out and fit the challenge. Interestingly enough, the words on the bike rack, the color of the purple wall and shadow were a strong enough focal points that I didn̢۪t even notice that the bike rack post had blown highlights down the center. Overall, I think you found an interesting view of an everyday object but it just didn̢۪t say Transportation to the majority of voters.

Tim

Untitled (Peas and Black Calla)
by betsypdx

Comment:
Betsy,

Loved the colors in this photo and I gave it a 7. I agree with thomaspeople in that I would have like to have seen a couple of more peas in the image. That FA 100 macro lens looks like a keeper for sure.

Tim

Belly Up
by Hoochie

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

As you can gather from the comments left during the challenge (mine included), this image definitely was a little out of the box for this challenge. On the technical side, you did a very nice job with the lighting. The sunflower is nicely lit without having blown highlights and the woman has good skin tones and no harsh shadows. As for the composition of the image, I found the placement of her elbow and the sunflower a bit awkward. One suggestion would be to have the woman facing the sunflower. That way the sunflower would have been a complimenting subject instead of a competing one. I'm finding that when shooting for these challenges that I need to try slight variations in the composition when shooting. Two of my top three scores were second efforts, as they ended up being stronger images than my original setup. You're making progress and keep shooting. Feel free to PM me if you want some constructive comments on any of your future entries.

Tim

Pears
by Shea927

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

I like your subject choice for this challenge and gave you a 6 on this image because I thought the subject met the challenge and you executed your idea well. The only suggestion I have to improve this image is to try using a square crop to eliminate some of the dead space at the top of the image. As presented, the section of tree branch without any fruit and the section of sky without clouds at the top of the photo act as negative space with no real purpose. I would suggest cropping the top of the image down to just below the node where the branch holding the top pear meets the main branch. Give it a try and see how this changes the balance of the image.

PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Message edited by author 2006-08-22 07:40:35.

Two Bridges
by photoneer

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

This image is very well done and a good subject choice for this challenge. I remember when I voted on this image that I liked the bridge and the technical aspects of the image but that there was a lot of other stuff competing for attention. The part of this image that grabs my attention first is the under lighting of the bridge. This part of the photo shows great texture and really addresses the subject of the challenge. From there, my eyes went to the far right side of the image to the lights reflecting in the water. Then I glanced over to the colors in the sky over by the second bridge. As you can see, the great from the ground up perspective was lost by all of the other pleasant looking things in this image.

Here are a few suggestions you could try to see if they help bring focus to your image. I suggest you crop off the reflected lights on the right side of the image, including the two bright lights that are under the bridge. Since the eye naturally looks from left to right, this crop would eliminate the competing subject of the reflected light and make the second lighted bridge support a complimentary secondary subject. I would also suggest cropping some off the left side of the image so the bridge bisects the upper left corner. This will let the bridge act as a leading line to the wonderful lighting underneath. If you feel like re-shooting this image, I would suggest staying a little longer and see how it looks when there is less color in the sky on the left. This bridge has so much texture and character that it should be able to stand on it own merit.

If you have any questions regarding this critique, feel free to send my a PM.

Tim

Essence of Grace
by Weefan

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club:

I didn̢۪t vote on this challenge so this is the first time I̢۪ve looked at your entry. Let me congratulate you on a great looking image for your first challenge. My first impression was Wow. As you can tell from the comments made during voting, this is not the strongest subject choice for a Stopped Action challenge. However, chasing a butterfly is not easy and you surly did a nice job capturing this one. One suggestion I can offer is to crop just a little bit off the top of the image. If you crop the image so that the purple flower intersects the upper left corner, it becomes a very strong leading line to your butterfly. As cropped, the flower acts more like a leading line out of the image. This is an image that you should be proud to have in your portfolio.

Tim

Message edited by author 2006-08-19 09:23:03.