Elemental
by Pixelstate

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

First of all congratulations on your top ten finish. It is certainly well deserved!

This is a relatively high contrast scene but the exposure was dealt with quite well. The sun definitely evident in the shot but without creating excessively large highlight areas.

I really like the detail in the sky. It has a very nice vast and "infinite" feel to it. (A lot to do with the choice of lens I think. Makes me ponder whether I should get one).

The composition is pretty good. I like the way the different elements (sky, foreground, island in the distance) all work together to create depth.

The color are rich and well saturated without going overboard

Details are sharp for the most part. A bit of the sunlight has bled into the top of the hill in the distance unfortunately. Nevertheless there is good detail in the rocks and sky.

The challenge: This is such a good image that to be honest, I didn't even give the challenge a second thought until just now. All 4 elements are present. (Though I disagree with the notion that the Sun represents fire but that's a silly opinion and has no bearing at all here)

Overall - Well done. Aside from the hill that I mentioned, I can't see anything obvious to improve this image.

Shapes from Candle Light
by JLC

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Interesting approach to the challenge. The effect you were going for works fairly well. Lighting is pretty decent and composition is okay. To cut to the chase, the technicals are fine here. Perhaps a little more depth portrayed in the shot would be nice but otherwise its alright.

Unfortunately with this shot, there's that wow factor missing. As mentioned in the previous comments, more candles might help. Perhaps moving the candles around and spacing them out and placing them at varying distances from the camera may help. You've composed using the rule of thirds which is fine. Try it also in the third dimension as well. You could also try different levels for variety. (A black hockey puck as a stand might allow the change in levels without being noticable in the scene)

Previous commenters mentioned changing the background. Maybe but I honestly like it the way it is. Your eye is drawn to the star patterns.

Potentially you could have closed your aperture a fair bit and used a shorter exposure time to try to get just the stars. (Just an idea though.)

Overall, I like the fact you were trying to be creative with your topic. Keep the ideas coming!

A mixed bag
by mileskea

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

A great idea that unfortunately needed something more to give it that "Wow" factor for the voters. The angle is probably where I would start. Getting a lower angle would definitely help.

Even with this type of shot, try to think in terms of what your main object of focus is. There is a lot going on in this picture and the viewer doesn't know what you want them to look at. A lot angle with the wide aperture you used would draw the eye to the items in focus. It would then start straying away from the central area and start exploring. It would also create a feeling of depth. This composition is unfortunately a little two dimensional.

Desaturating the colors might have also worked against you. You have a lot of vibrant colors in this shot. Subduing them really takes away alot of the impact I think. Just as a thought (i.e. something to try some time). Try to organize these by color. Give the shot an overall them.

I would really be curious how this would turn out if you give some of these things a try. It might be worth a second try I think.

Holding on to Hope
by brownsm

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Great leading lines in this shot. The line of the wall takes the viewer into the frame as does the ceiling tiles.

Lighting is pretty good. Previous commenters said not to use a flash. For me the shadows actually work here as it lends to an overall dark feeling that helps create a mood. I like that the hallway behind her becomes quite dark and is symbolic of the child's fears. The light in the doorway behind her help separate her from the background nicely.

Exposure is pretty good. A larger aperture would have helped separate the subject from the background more but I kinda like the detail in the background anyways for this shot.

The challenge: As mentioned previously, some voters might have felt that this was a staged shot. In the two second view of some voters, they have also not understood why the bear was desaturated. The average score given by commenters shows that the viewer needs to look at this shot for a while to really "get it"

Well done!

Paint Her Blue
by WickedB

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Composition:
Interesting pose for the model. I'd consider moving her to the left abit so that the center of her body is over to about a third. That might be nitpicky though.

Lighting is relatively good. The background is fairly bright but it creates a good separation from the background.

The challenge: Interesting and unique approach to the challenge. As mentioned in the previous comments the blue line has a bit of sloppiness to it. A smoother line would perhaps be more interesting. Maybe masking out the line might have been more effective than desaturating all colors except blue and cyan. (But not quite as easy of course).

Other: The picture does work for black and white conversion. Maybe a little more contrast might have helped.

Bumping up the ISO to 400 would have allowed a smaller aperture and a bit more DOF. The only thing you want blurred is the background and I think you would have achieved that at f/7.1 (is that the next f stop? I forget). You could also just use a slower shutter speed but it might have resulted in some blur. (1/25 sec...hmm...maybe)

Overall: I enjoy this image as it is a "fun" approach to the challenge. A little more sharpness and contrast and this image would be in the 6's.

Water, Sky, and Mountain High
by elizadeb

Comment:
ouch...waaay oversaturated and over processed.

Where the Elements Meet
by cryan

Comment:
Very cool IR shot!

Elemental
by jdannels

Comment:
Wow....I love the colors and range of tones in this shot. The sky is magnificent. There's a lot of shoreline shots and this is the best so far and likely the best I will see. Well done!

Waters Edge
by Firsty

Comment:
I'd personally prefer this with a smaller border. Good colors that nicely saturated. Well composed.

Garden Of Eden
by PixelKing

Comment:
A little oversaturated and oversharpened in my opinion. Nice scene however.