Red Eye Tetra
by freakin_hilarious

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: I love this. Fantastic post processing that is a perfect match for the image - it has a frozen look about it. The bubbles at the top are spectacular and the red eye works really well. I love the vignette too and the starkness of the blown parts of the image. Nailed.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all.

Overall: A great image - I'm looking forward to seeing who put this together. Bumped to a 10.

Retro in Red
by GeneralE

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: The coloration is pretty good, it is a great shade of red and the green and blue highlights work well too.

Critical stuff: Everything else (sorry to be harsh) - the subject matter itself is, in my opinion, super-dull; to pull this off I think you would have needed to have made some bolder lighting, shooting and editing choices. With a really critical rant I could say 'unfocussed', 'ill-composed', 'distracting, cluttered background' but actually I don't think any of this is accidental, I think they are deliberate choices and that make me want to know more about the context.

Overall: This is a difficult image for me, in many ways it is something a 5 year old might produce with a point-and-shoot, but it isn't - this is something that has been 'seen' and chosen and offered in good faith. In the final analysis, the limitations are in my viewing; I don't get it and I don't like it but I'm guessing you do and I'm also guessing that you're a much more creative photographer than me - I'd never have the faith or commitment to stand by something as viewer-challenging as this.

I'm going to score it purely subjectively though, I know I may have missed it's merit but my vote is mine to give and I'm afraid it's a 3 from me; after all, your honesty with the image deserves an honest reaction from me.

River Tree
by jomerner

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: What an interesting scene and one that confounds the viewer - I can see the meniscus of the water adjacent to some of the branches so I assume this is lying on the surface. What I can't work out is why the 'tree' has such sharpness while the ripples top left are so out of focus - I'd have thought they would have been in the same focal plane. The square composition works really well - my wife just said to me that it looks like an album cover and I can see that it really does. The flower of course is the star here - a vital element that lifts your image.

Critical stuff: There are parts of the image (the branches) that look a little over-sharpened and the highlights on the flower are perhaps a little bright - also I do find the ripples top left a little frustrating because their OOF nature, the eye is drawn there but is not satisfied.

Overall: A very well composed and most interesting image - my frustration with elements of it are minor compared to the overall impact of the image. I like it.

Rotor Wash
by CorySmith

Comment:
Not something you (well, me) see(s) every day. Excellent stuff.

Enter The Umbrella Man
by Quigley

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives:This has a very dramatic feel about it, I really like the composition and the lighting is really top notch. DOF and sharpness is pretty amazing for this light level.

Critical stuff: In some ways the scene looks a little too contrived - I wonder if the smoke (was it a canister?), if I use my hand to mask of the left hand side of the image, with the man's back being adjacent to the left edge it becomes (for me) a more effective image.

Overall: Very, very competent work - well beyond the likes of me, but I can't help thinking that less may have been more. Still, I do admire it. 8.

Duchesne PE
by zeuszen

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: I really, really like this - the colour and grain, the mix of focus and blur, the inverted figures, the overall mystery of the object, the play of the light on the surface - all these elements contribute to something more than the sum of the parts.

Critical stuff: Nothing at all.

Overall: DPC is a better place for entries like this, images from people who understand the difference between seeing and just framing. It won't do well, but it gets a 9 from me.

Morning walk
by sjul

Comment:
This is a very beautiful image - wonderful light.

Bye bye 2009...
by ladibug

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: A very interesting feel here, not sure whether this is inside or outside - reminds of a recreated street in a museum of some sort. The lighting is quite strange (in a good way), both flat and with depth at the same time. The overall subject matter confuses just as much, there is a lot of mystery in the figure, especially in relation to their position with respect to the rest of the scene.

Critical stuff: All of the above really, the flip side of the mystery is that the image does conspire to confound and thus frustrate a little.

Overall: Made me stop, made me think.... Do I like it? I still don't know.

Camouflage
by ChikaZAWa

Comment:
OK, I'm going through the Free Study submissions, purposefully finding those images I think are shot with a less conventional eye - this is one of those images! Thanks for offering something that isn't just DPC friendly eye-candy (though of course there's nothing wrong with eye-candy). I'll be picking one of these images for the Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: I really like the way this has an abstract feel to it - it offers something of having an overlay (but without the overlay!) Other than the plant the rest of the scene looks like it is shrink wrapped in plastic. Going back to the plant - I think it is a vital element in the image, it anchors the eye and allows it to wander out and explore. It would be a chaotic image without it. I also like the brown/blue/green colour palette.

Critical stuff: I do wish the head / tops of eyes were a tad sharper, though I can see that this might diminish the camouflage effect.

Overall: A well constructed and edited image.

Earnest Little Beggar
by MaryO

Comment:
This pretty amazing really - squirrel shots are 10 a penny (done a bunch myself) but this 'pose', this lighting and this background elevate this image to something rather special.