Man and Dog
by Melethia

Comment:
I really liked the point of view of this shot and thought that the black and white conversion was strong enough to give the shot pop but not so harsh that it overpowered the intrinsic softeness of the dogs fur

Really nice composition as well, sadly one of those shots that gets lost in a free study because it is not brightly coloured enough

A thing of gentle beauty

Paging Mr. Trombone Player
by BAMartin

Comment:
A really nice festive shot and I like the fact that amidst all the noise and action someone found the necessity to make a text call (actually let me change that comment...I despair of the fact that he made the text but I love the fact that you captured it)

A super slice of life shot

Stillness After the Snow
by bassbone

Comment:
5.71? Your having a laugh, in a free study when there were so many great landscapes I thought that this beat the vast majority of them into a cocked hat

Brilliant reflection and I love the cloud touching the top of the mountain

Just to prove that you can never please all the people all the time I thought the high contrast really gave the shot some bite and feel it would have lost something without it

Freeze Dried
by Charlene

Comment:
Well I love this shot, great textures and it has a real 3d feel to it. I thought the browns of the plant were really brought out by the light bokeh. Stunned that this scored less than 5.

Almost Parallel
by colorcarnival

Comment:
Michelle

well this got a six from me. I loved the title which really went with this lovely B&W shot. The low key was great and I thought the image itself was wonderful with the way the light was playing on the leaves.

Simple and super, great bokeh too

Burj Al Arab at sunset
by signal2noise

Comment:
I can understand why you would have really liked this shot, it is nicely composed and applies the rule of thirds well. Also to be honest 5.32 is not that 'bad' in a free study when scoring tends to be very harsh

IMO perhaps the thing that it is lacking is a real wow facor. the sky is great but in terms of the building itself (the key element of the shot) the dusk has made it seem a little flat and whilst it certainly isnt lost in the frame neither does it really scream out look at me.

I think in a themed challenge this would have scored higher (top 5's low 6's) but in a free study when there are so many breathtaking images it was good but not great

gimme
by Alicia

Comment:
Alicia

OK I will be honest and say that I did not like this shot very much. IMO there is always a bit of a risk in taking an abstracty/humourous shot like this in that unless it is excuted perfectly then there is a chance that it will not do very well and (again imo) the focus is slightly off on the fingers and the goats mouth (which is the key element of the shot). In a free study especially when there is normally such a plethora of overwhelming images ones with even a slight 'error' get far lower marks than they would normally do

Having said all that I do think the idea was great and I did like the framing of the image

Elegy
by figaro

Comment:
OK let me be honest...I gave this a four and in retrospect I do think I was too harsh on it (sorry). There is a lot to like about this image, the centred composition, the ripples from the swans body. My 'problems' with it when I was marking it is that I found even when I looked at it quite closely although I knew it was a swan/seabird I could not really make out what was happening in the shot which was a bit unnerving and unattractive to the eye. Also because the animal seems to be mid moult the darkness of its feathers seems to blend in a bit with the surface of the water making it a touch flat and indistinct

Having said that I think that many people looking at this a second time would say it was worthy of a higher score than it had been given

Winter Wonderland
by KarenNfld

Comment:
Karen, well I have to say that I wish all my shots could tank at 5.75 ;)

OK I think this is a very good shot although perhaps not with any wow factor that stops you dead in your tracks. I guess that the main problem is that we have seen a lot of winter landscapes recently and perhaps this means that they lose some of their impact...I scored this a six, but looking at it now I think at another time I may have scored it a seven...Maybe the other issue with free studies is that because there are so many pictures to score people (myself) included dont give images as much attention as they might do in a smaller challenge

My only possible minor photo wise is that some of the shadows falling on the trees in the background centre of the shot maybe darken the image a tad too much

Still a great landscape though

Winter
by LanndonKane

Comment:
Well I scored this a six. I cant quite understamd why it only scored 5.36.

It is sharp, well composed and the colours grab your attention.

Two thoughts...One maybe feel it was overprocessed and verging on digital art (I am not one of those people but I could see how the misconception could be made). Secondly, we seem to have had a surfeit of single leaf shots in recent weeks, a lot of these have not been as good as this but some have possibly been better. Sometimes when a subject is feel to have been overdone people fail to get the wow factor of the shot

I thought this was an excellent shot though and one I would have loved to take