A Flight of Fancy
by Jaded_Housewife

Comment:
I never even thought of using IR for this challenge or the nightmare challenge. Excellent idea and well executed. Congrats on the ribbon!

Hourglass..
by JamesA

Comment:
If you had her whole arm in the frame that would help. You focus seems to be on her right arm more than her eyes. The focus isn't bad it would be just better if it was on her face.
Increasing the contrast would help as well. The b&w conversion is okay but could be better. Not sure how you converted but I would recommend using the channel mixer (in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro) rather than just a simple desaturation.

That aside: The idea you had for the challenge was unique. A portrait might not have been the way to portray the idea though. Maybe a silhouette? Just a thought...

Well Groomed
by RulerZigzag

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

As mentioned in a few of the comments, your sky does appear overexposed. How do you deal with that? You can point your camera at the sky and hit the exposure lock button. Alternatively (and the way that I have found to work fairly well recently) is to go into full manual.

I have the D50 and while you have the D200 the process is the same. Point the camera at the sky as mentioned previously. The aperture you wanted (judging from the settings you provided) is F8 so dial that in 1st. Next you have to adjust your shutter speed. In your view finder you will see a series of bars at the bottom. Keep changing the shutter speed until they line up with the middle. (Bars will disappear as you get closer). You are now exposing for the sky.

With trees, you actually want to underexpose usually anyways. (Usually about -2/3 of a stop).

If your exposure if good then you won't need to get too carried away with saturation. Adjust the levels then curves and you'll end up with a really solid shot.

In hindsight I um...wish I would have done these steps myself.... :)

Life Saver
by inshaala

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Well, a lot of sung praise to your submission so there isn't a lot I can say that hasn't already been said. At best I may end up summarizing what previous comments have already said.

Exposure: yes the skies are dark but that is quite effective here. It creates a nice ominous mood for the sky. It also helps create a strong contrast with the color of the life preserver. A light sky would weaken the effect considerably.

Composition: Simple but effective. Good negative space on the left but its got enough detail for the eye to see something interesting. The diagonal lines on the lighthouse effectively take your eye into the picture. The position of the life preserver is excellent: in a strong position without overpowering the shot.

Color: Great rich colors that are nicely saturated without going overboard.

The Challenge: Definitely meets the challenge. At 4th place the voters agree too.

Overall: Great image. Sadly DPC doesn't give ribbons for 4th place because this shot deserves one.

Earth and Sky
by drewhosick

Comment:
Nice but why portrait orientation? Why not landscape? Just wondering...

Mirror Image
by karenk

Comment:
Color and monochrome. I like the fact that you removed the color from the "real" side of the image.

Duty to Country Overrides Youthful Fun and Family
by boyd2000

Comment:
The title indicates the dichotomy but I need to SEE the dichotomy.

The Chaser and the Chasee
by cca

Comment:
Either the ball or the dog need to be in good focus for this to work well. You have your focus kinda in the middle which isn't really one of the elements you need to focus on.

Aside from that? The DPC crowd doesn't vote well on pet shots. (I disagree with this since pets can portray such a broad range of emotions and it is something special to capture that). In terms of the challenge I like the approach. Its unique and well thought out. I guarantee there is going to be a lot of shoe horn entries in this challenge: this isn't one of them.

Lifeguard v. Swimmers
by kandykarml

Comment:
People at a pool
Can you be both? Not really...
This fits the challenge.

Interesting take. Quite unique and one that few people (if any?) would have thought of. I'd be curious how this would look if everything except the lifeguard and the water were desaturated. Lots of PP to do it but it might look cool.

Anyways...

Frog Man
by Kronus

Comment:
Dichotomy can be defined as "a split or division into two mutually exclusive groups" such as mind and body or sacred and secular. So this doesn't meet the challenge.

...and its kinda creepy...