Death of a leaf
by rio78

Comment:
Cool concept. Background of a wood floor? Little extra effort with a black background (or some solid color) and this would look about 10 times better.

Choice
by Zoomdak

Comment:
Very cool idea. I hate to say it but I think Basic Editing really, really held it back from what it could have been. Still, an original entry in a challenge full of garbage. Good luck!

"In Dirt you find the roots of life"
by Thai

Comment:
Hmm, some problems here.

You've got something with a zero-thought-required relation to the challenge theme. This is good if you don't want to take any risks.

The subject matter is boring. Very boring. So the challenge for you is to present it in an interesting manner. Dead centered and slightly out of focus with nasty shadows and a pea soup background is not the approach to take.

Perhaps getting in closer, or cropping the image heavily, to present a section of the root ball with the dirt amidst the plant matter - in sharp focus - would work better. There are some interesting patterns in there. Shot from straight on or even slightly below would also work better than top down. Certainly a black (or white maybe) background would also set the subject off nicely and get it to stand out.

A final consideration is the lighting. Try setting this next to a window during the day and let the natural light fall on it from the side. That would accentuate the shadows within the root ball giving the whole thing much more depth and my eye much more to feast upon.

Hope those are some relatively helpful ideas. I imagine this photo is probably not setting a scoring record but maybe you are getting comments so you can make some improvements for the next challenge.

Good luck!

Good Scratch
by Ristyz

Comment:
Cool photo, great capture. The vignetting along the top really, really needs to go. Other than that, a strong entry. Good luck!

Beneath the dirt
by bryantbus

Comment:
I'm just not sure what to make of this. I actually held off on voting on it after first checking it out last night. The dirt looks like it was an attempt at making an interesting pattern on the skin, but the processing really makes it look like pudding smeared on her. Normally I'm all for smeared pudding on naked women, don't get me wrong, but it's just not very appealing here. I think maybe there's actually too much clean skin showing to present this as some hidden gem 'beneath the dirt'. Honestly I just can't get my head around the shot. Don't care for the processing, though I can see it being an attempt to make the whole image 'dirty' in appearance. I just get the impression you had vision for this shot and it fell apart in execution. Then again, maybe you think it's the cat's meow and there are 20 other comments agreeing with you. Good luck!

Got Dirt? Get maid!
by tjmueller

Comment:
Cute girl in a french maid outfit and this was all you could get out of it? Stick a duster in her hand, bend her over a dirty table and you meet the challenge and get hottie points as well. Just think you missed an opportunity here.

Thunderball
by gloda

Comment:
How did you light it all with a flashlight shooting at 1/120? Cool shot.

Octopussy!
by snaffles

Comment:
roflmao!!!

Goldeneyes
by RulerZigzag

Comment:
Lmao, how could you have thought that was legal editing roflmao

Sensory Deprivation
by pointandshoot

Comment:
Heheh, figured someone would do this. Is dirt dust? Is brown blue? The universe spins in bewilderment.