Shades of Morning
by newtune3

Comment:
I love these types of shots. Great subtleties in the sky colors and background. Love the silhouette! Only wish you'd have gotten all the tree in shot...
TC

Nature's Elegance
by Refracted

Comment:
Focus appears to be a little TOO soft here. A touch more lighting or a boost in levels would help to bring out the shadows more also. Nice composition!
TC

Silver Lining
by jab119

Comment:
Very cool effect here! I can't wait to see how much PS you had to do to achieve this.
TC

Love in Red
by Rooster

Comment:
I'm sorry, call me old school, but I don't care for nose rings... Not a bad shot overall, but don't care for the selective desaturation. I don't think that it has a real effect here. Also your border is not even all around.
TC

A whole life ahead
by Harz_Joerg

Comment:
This is a very nice use of DOF and composition. I'm not sure I like the crop, but it is effective! The only thing I would change within this crop is the reflection in the eye is a bit much. Overall: an excellent portrait without using standard portrait techniques!
TC
PS: Did you work this one up as B/W or two tone? You have an awesome depth of color tones to play around with. I would love to see this after the challenge if you have done it, or have permission to do it up myself!!!

Leftovers
by casualguy

Comment:
The leaf looks a little bit staged, but this is the best detail I've seen in snow yet...
TC

Reflections
by Drake

Comment:
From the Critique Club

From a technical standpoint, this image is nicely done. You have a nice soft focus which (normally) goes well with the color of the subject. You have very nice soft warm lighting.

When I say that the soft focus and this color of subject normally go well together, in this instance I think that the effect clashes with the glitter. I KNOW it's a soft focus effect by looking at the leaves and stem! My eye, however, is trying to tell me that the glittery grapes are out of focus however! I believe this to be an optical illusion caused by the glitter. The soft focus combined with the light refraction of the glitter makes it LOOK out of focus.

Compositionally, this shot is a little lacking. I think that putting the subject along a diagonal rather than straight across the center would make this shot 'pop' more! I'm also a little put off by the effect of the glare along the very bottom edge of the reflection.

All in all this is a very interesting study in the effects of lighting, soft focus and subject material!
TC

Sting
by magnus

Comment:
From the Critique Club

When I saw this entry for the first time my thought was 'What a timely choice of subjects with the movie just released!'

I like how you chose to shoot straight on against the blade rather than down the length. This way you have the whole shot in focus which is a definately a plus! You also did a good job of capturing the depth of the etching with the lighting angles that you chose. At first I was put off by the bluish cast, but considering the subject and story behind the subject, it is actually a very intelligent choice. Those who are not familiar with the story may or may not like the blue cast however.

From a compositional point of view, I both like and dislike the way that you framed this. I like it because you get more detail in what you can see! The lighting and shading in the etching comes out nice as does the bevel on the edge. I dislike the framing mostly because I'm such a big Tolkien fan and would like to be able to translate the Elvish runes.

All in all a very nice shot and one that I would consider turning into a print!
TC

Industrial Flower
by DiamondPete

Comment:
From the Critique Club

This is one of the more interesting shots from the Macro III challenge! I like your choice of subject and your choice of angles! The colors go very well together and there are very nice textures.

The tight crop does well here, but I don't like how the top edge of the bit is cropped out. My only real complaint with this photo is one that I have with many Macro shots, the shallow DOF. With only the very tip of the bit in focus, you don't really achieve the sense of depth. I think an improvement would be to focus slightly further down the bit or increasing the DOF.

This is an awesome subject for a study set of shots. If you decide to do this I would love to see the results!
TC

Encased
by LucidLotus

Comment:
I'm gonna have to show this shot to my 11 year old! He loves to experiment with putting stuff in the freezer...Eggs, Water balloons, lemons, bottles with stuff suspended in the ice....