Antithesis
by SharQ

Comment:
The anithesis of deep depth of field? Is that the point? Whatever. 1

Hilltop Weather Station
by postoakinversion

Comment:
This is one of those very difficult to comment on images :-) Of itself, there's nothing immediately wrong with it - not technically: exposure is fine, sharpness and focus is fine, detail is pretty much there. and it certainly meets the challenge ... but that's all it does. There's no drama in it ... the brushy undergrowth is pretty static, and just a confusion of leaves and brown-greens - there are no patterns there, no textures to hold the eye, and it's just pretty ugly. The weather station isn't so interesting a shape, and framing it across the horizon line makes it seem absolutely mundane. Ther is some distant subject in the shot, but only a very tiny amount, that thin strip of distant field: the light does nothing for that, and again there are no regular shapes or patterns to hold interest, just a random mix of fields. And the sky ... well, at least you avoided the real fear of a blank blue sky.

Such mundane subjects, in my view, require moments of exceptional clarity of light, and the skill and luck to capture that, to be interesting: the light here is your major problem after your choice of subject. It nust isn't doing anything for this scene ... other than making it visible. There's no shape and definition to the foreground, no texture tto the far fields. It's almost as though you've decided that the rule of thirds is enough all by itself.

Viewpoint is something you could happily play with here too - shooting up from the ground, including some of that vegetation at the botttom of fframe would still give you an example of deep depth of field, but with much more drama to the shot: even that change of a few feet in point of view would alter the whole impact of the image, especially compared with what appears to be a head-height shot. 3

The Green Valley
by Tressider

Comment:
Everything in frame is sharp OK - a start at least. Really difficult to make out any shadows here - looks like the sun may be directly overhead, which has an awful flattening effect on this landscape. If only you'd been able to wait until a lower angle of light might have produced some shadows to give real depth to those hills, some real shape: which might also have helped in terms of pure composition - it's a struggle here to find any shapes to lead the eye around, or any real striking subject to hold the attention and to anchor the image. 5

"All Ears"
by tfarrell23

Comment:
Dang, you must be disappointed to place down here with that score, and to score that low with that shot ... love the detail, the gentleness, subtleness of it. More power to the 5400 :-)

ed

Ruler of the Fruit
by Sonifo

Comment:
Also browsing ... and for me by far the most interesting shot of the challenge. everyone else has resorted, it seems, to tricksy and slightly weird studies: you have found something interesting and dramatic, and genuinely photographic, in a true image of bananas. Top work.

Sea terminus
by bpickard

Comment:
Interesting to read your process for altering the sky ... for me, you've taken the contrast thing just a bit too far: the brightness of those white areas of cloud don't sit correctly with the light on the tower on the harbour, and it is perhaps too blue - these are marginal things for me, just a touch less extreme would I think make this more 'photographic', less 'processed'. In similar situations myself, I usually select with a feathering of 200 pixels, so that that join is very progressive, and less cleaning up required.

Having said that, I love the composition, and the tonality you've found in the little building (where the light is extraordinary) and the stones of the wall. Good work indeed. You Scots are starting to rival the Icelanders here - must be something to do with wind and rain :-)

Ed

the window
by ursula

Comment:
Yeah - for once selective desat really does work, even for me :-) Congrats on another ribbon ... that blue's just around the corner ...

The Prey's Perspecitve
by JoelHSmith

Comment:
Nah - cat photos? Everyone hates 'em :-) Great work, good result ... congrats on your first ribbon.

E

"High Above Hoover"
by tfarrell23

Comment:
Good - serious competition on the 5400 front page. You have what many regard as the worst possible placing here - so close, and yet so far. Good shooting.

Family
by moodville

Comment:
Oh gosh this is one of those shots that makes your heart beat faster - has a wonderful aged quality (dof, I think), and were it for the fact that he never took animal shots that I know of, would be worthy of Frank Meadow Sutcliffe - there is little higher praise. Compositionally perfect, and so exact as to take it beyond the sentimentality it might easily have succumbed to. You should be sending this to every picture editor you can find.