What Lies Beneath
by crabappl3

Comment:
This is comment number 2000. Thought I'd just mark that little landmark. And a very fine image to bring that up with too. There's a lot that I really like here too - the composition, the mystery, the sense of solitude, and space. it may onyl be a optical illusion, but there's a sense of the image being slightly tilted to the right that doesn't help the feel - even if it is an optical illusion, surely a touch of rotation to the left might have eased that sense? A beautiful shot, nevertheless. Top work.

The Fountain of Youth
by ahaze

Comment:
Good capture, good sense of mood, but almost every sense of composition has been sacrificed to that capture. It's a very fine candid shot of a kid - very fine indeed.

A River Runs Through It
by mcanyon

Comment:
I wonder if you haven't sacrificed too much, in fact all, detail in that foreground bottom left area in order to capture those reflections in that water. There is some interest in those reflections, but perhaps you've concentrated oo much on them, and excluded too much of the setting, of the context? The sharpening seems a touch heavy - there's a suspicion of halo-ing around the branches, and some jaggedness in the lines too - slightly too high a radius? 5

Harry Potter
by nova

Comment:
I only wish you could have matched the detail and sense of texture you've caught on the pot in her face; it just seems a little out of focus, or blurred, and a touch too dark. For all that, a lovely study of concentration and artistry - the shaping a moulding of her left hand adds a fine touch. The noise levels might have leant themselves to a black and white presentation, perhaps?

Gone with the wind.
by armin

Comment:
And I was expecting it to be Mary Poppins, but then no Nanny appeared. I like this, there's a certain lunatic (in a nice way) edge to the composition. A shame that that hedge line couldn't be cleaner - it feels halfway an accidental inclusion (although obviously not) for being so disorganised. The very featureless sky doesn't really help this kind of stuff, either, I think: the very madness of it requires a big bright sky, I would think. I know, you can't choose your weather; but ... well, the image still cries out for it, to me. 6

Practical Magic
by OFreasier

Comment:
The light, especially in the area of the cards and the knife, is lovely ... but i really wish you hadn't included so very much stuff in the shot. Together with the really very bright candles it makes it a difficult image to look at for long ... there is too much to remove the eye from the cards, and not enough to hold the attention once drawn. Simpler is very often better, and can communicate just as much if carefully composed. 5

Duck Soup (1933)
by Pug-H

Comment:
Pretty neat, and you lighting isn't too bad - there's quite a strong sense of the various textures. It isn't, for me, a very succcessful challenge entry - but I'm struggling to say why exactly: I think it is a question of weak composition in the end: there's a tension between the spoon and the ducks, which actually adds to the strength of the area of frame where the bowl is, and somehow it is that that becomes the central subject - the ducks are weak, die to their central placing, the spoon because of being out of focus, and the bowl seems like the least important part of the image. I wonder if a less horizontal viewpoint might have strengthened the image? Nice try though

Taking Lives
by renaissanceman

Comment:
As a set up for a propaganda image this is ideal. To my eye, your execution of it could have been improved with the use of levels or histogram adjustments to really take that background to black, and probably also by using a softer and more angled light, which I think would help provide a threatening sheen on the gun, and prevent that glare on the bullet. Not an image I like, I'm afraid - it's too straighforward and obvious a message for me, akin to being battered over the head. But neatly done. 5

On the Waterfront
by jenesis

Comment:
Strong image, good choice of title too. Immaculate use of depth of field, and a strong compositional balance across the frame. It's possibly a touch too purely graphic for my taste (and this really is now about personal taste): there isn't enough definition in those ducklings to add that extra level of wit to it. nevertheless, strong work. 7

Solitude
by Brad

Comment:
Ten ribbons in nine months, and just 60 challenges Brad. I think you'll need a handicap, soon. Congratulations on another one :-)