From The Depths
by Senay

Comment:
Here's your critique and feedback as requested! :D

I must say, this is a very cool shot. The DOF (Depth of Field) and contrast together create that darkening effect as the focus gets shallower through the image. The Purple colors against the black is beautiful and the texture on the end of the black strands just makes the whole photo pop. Congratulations, there's just a few things that could've been done differently. First of all, as you noted, the end of the purple strands are very blown out, this takes away from the photos impact. Also, the crop along the bottom seems a little tight, I'd like to see some more empty space below the furthest down stands. Also, image quality and detail is a little low, I believe this came form a combination of your lens, sharpening in Post-Processing, and the overall image grain coming from your colors and 800 ISO speed rating. In the future you might want to try putting your light behind a screen or using a reflector so the brighter parts of the image don't get blown out as the rest of the image is brought into midtone. Also, shoot with a 50mm or 100mm macro lens to capture as much detail as possible. And in post processing, use one of the many Noise Reduction tools such as Noiseware Pro, Noise Ninja, or NeatImage. Those are very useful filters that can be applied to virtually any photo graph and are allowed in basic editing here on DPC. NeatImage is free, but I personally recommend Noiseware Pro. To wrap this up, great photo, the reason it didn't get something more like a 6.0 or 6.5 is because of the blown highlights and image grain, reducing the photos impact and detail. Great photo none the less, keep it up! :D

- ColemanGariety
The DPChallenge Critique Club

P.S: You had me stumped, I thought it was a tooth brush!

Duotone Macro
by 777STAN

Comment:
Here's Your Critique and Feedback as requested! :D

The goal of the Puzzle Macro Challenge was to create an interesting, detailed, piece of photographic art without presenting exactly what the viewer was looking at. You did a very good job of hiding your subject in the photo, but overall the isn't very eye-grabbing. You made up for your relatively simple subject with color, Depth of Field, lighting and luminosity. The colors are outstanding, probably the best part of the photo. Next to that is the luminosity of the tarp and the brown stripe, almost giving it a glow-effect.The depth of field is fantastic and make the difference between a 4.4 and a 5.4! A combination of those three factors really makes the photo pop, come off as a painting, it's very, pretty. There is one major factor that kept me from voting this a 6. This would be the fold in the tarp in the upper-left. For me, had that continued onward, you wouldn't have that diagonal drop-off of the tarp taking the focus away from the luminous brown-stripe. Your score would've been higher had the tarp been in a slightly different position when you took the photo. In colclusion, there's only so much you can do with a tarp in photography, and you did just about as much as could be done with this subject. Hope that was helpful to you!

- ColemanGariety
The DPChallenge Critique Club

Burning!
by jotaga

Comment:
Here's your Critique and Feedback, as requested! :D

This is by far one of the strangest photos on DPC this week. Based on the original image you posted in the description, this is only a small portion of the image of a cigarette you took with your camera. Overall, it's a fantastically composed shot, but since you cropped in so tightly from the original shot, you get quite a bit of motion blurring on the embers of the cigarette.The original shot appears to be all in focus, but as you look deeper, the only hing that's truly in focus is the spark. The more of the full-focus spark you can show, the more my interest grows on this photo. This can be fixed by using a stronger macro lens or a reverse-lens technique so you don't have to crop-in so much, exposing the blurry elements of the cigarette embers. Also, there are many different ways you couldn't cropped this. And I personally feel showing a bit of black above the top of the cigarette and off to the right a bit would've raised your score, and still not have exactly exposed your "Puzzle." I like the blurry sparks in the background as well, and I'd like to see a crop where you showed the entire spark as well as the cigarette ember, but without showing anything more on the bottom-left of the cigarette itself. There is a lot of interest in what you've copped out and I'd really like to see some of the in the photo. You should aim to show as much of the photo as possible without exposing its true form. I think you would've gotten a much higher score had you used a stronger macro lens and not cropped out the entire spark. overall, the effect comes off as almost lighting. I like it and I think I gave it a 5 or a 6 in voting. This definitely deserved a higher score then it got. Hope I helped!

- ColemanGariety
- The Critique Club

Abandoned to the Snow
by davidw

Comment:
Here's your critique and feedback, as requested! =D

Fantastic job! The setting is almost surreal. The only thing I am disappointed in are the trees, they make the picture appear cluttered, and off-balance. The cropping could be done a little better, I'd love to see some white space to the left of the red shed or crop in to that green panel on top to it doesn't seem like the shed just ends improperly. From experience, either leave some padding on the side of leave em' hanging to fill in the rest. Also, I'd like to see more of the snow beneath the shed, since your title is "Abandoned to the Snow" it only seems reasonable. I love the textures on the barn shaft and the HDR'ed looking shed. I also love how the two buildings seem to be sloping in towards each-other, and the pealing red paint on the front of the shed lets the photo come of as almost a dream. Magnificent work, I'm only puzzled by the lake of image quality, if you have Photoshop, try sharpening with Un-Sharp Mask (USM) maybe %100-150, THEN resizing to 800 pixels, THEN Save for Web & Devices with 100 quality? That's something simple you can do to improve the quality of your photos as they appear on the interwebz. Hope I helped!

- ColemanGariety
The Critique Club

DPC-Stats-2009.jpg
by TrollMan

Comment:
Commenting is a major problem... Nice work though!

SWOOSH!!!
by Coley

Comment:
Still one of my all time favorites on DPC, amazed it didn't win a ribbon!

La Tour Eiffel - France
by Melethia

Comment:
I believe that in French, you would say "Tour de Eiffel" meaning Tower of Eiffel, but none the less, fantastic photo, congrats on your high score!

Woody Realizes He's With Lola - L.O.L.A. - Lola - Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola
by klkitchens

Comment:
LOVE that song!!! Glad you got the actual meaning behind it too.

Poquetanuck Cove
by bassbone

Comment:
Another amazing shot in HDR II. Good job, colors are spectacular along with reflections and textures. 7/10

Waterfall
by DistantColours

Comment:
Love the algae floating in the pond. Stunning water scene you have here. This is a keeper! 7/10