The Entire Tree from One Single Leaf
by nfessel

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: This is quite a find and you have handled the subject superbly, your choice of background, lighting and colouration serves only to emphasise the beauty of the leaf. Your composition too - just the right amount of negative space.

Critical stuff: Not much to say here

Overall: It's tempting to say that you haven't had much to do here - the leaf gave you the photo; but, that's not right - you brought plenty... plenty of faith in the leaf, plenty of restraint in the edit and plenty of understanding of what was important. If ever there was a photographic argument for 'less is more' - this would make a valuable contribution to that case.

vertigo
by krnodil

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: This certainly communicates an abstract vision, almost like a shattered mirror in addition to the image of the tree, one of those images where it helps to just look at the forms and shapes rather than examining the details.

Critical stuff: I'm not sure there is enough here to hold my attention, often in these longer comments it takes me a while to see the appeal and I'm glad I invested that time. I've been here for a while and I'm afraid I'm still not warming to this.

Overall: All credit to you for pulling off an image which in all probability reflects exactly what you wanted to achieve but I'm afraid I don't see what you must've seen in this image to enter it into the FS.

Youth
by gsal

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: Wow - how you've captured this! This is a masterclass in how to use contrast - it's practically painted with great blocks of the stuff. The hair is striking, driven into highlights and lowlights by the levels/curves you have used. The eyes would be too dark but the glimmer of a white in her right eye makes it just right, the pronounced background blur and of course the '66' - utterly compelling. The dutch angle and even the crop of the head it just right and of course you already know I'm going to appreciate the grain.

Critical stuff: Let's talk about the top left corner of the image - what is it? It's funny really, it looks distracting but if I mask it with my hand the image is diminished... a mark of of sublime 'crafting'. See what you've made me do with my 'critical stuff' bit!

Overall: Just perfect really, most people wouldn't be able to pull this image off - I wouldn't be able to, I'd doubtless over do some element - it would look clumsy in my editing hands. But you understand your work too well to make those errors. I just checked to see if it is on 1x.com. It isn't - but it should be. 10.

Wednesday's Child
by Hipychik

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: I love the tight composition here, accentuated as it is by the magnified eye - I love the way that element plays with the focus too. I'm sure you must have taken one with the focus on that eye with the rest out of focus - that'd be a great image too. The face is beautifully sharp though and the cropping is inspired.

Critical stuff: Nothing really.

Overall: This is one of those image that conveys an impression that you had a vision which you managed to achieve completely. Great shot.

genevieve
by bmilne

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: An interesting close composition which is characterised by some pretty heavy processing - the expression is excellent, very compelling.

Critical stuff: There seems to be target banding in the top right of the image - an 8bit rather than 16bit edit? The processing - it does work but I think it is a tad overdone, the whites of the eyes are a bit stark and the image conveys an impression of detail loss.

Overall: A worthy capture of a great expression but I'm not sure that your editing choices work for me.

The Mistery of the Red Lake
by pirsot

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: Brave image - it would've been really easy to go with a monotone image for this but the colour brings a whole other dimension. I really like the way the mist plays on the surface. I also like the POV, it seems quite low which I think really works. Compositionally the image is broken into 3 top to bottom segments, each brings something a little different.

Critical stuff: For me, I always avoid that yellowy green foliage colour - I always tweak it a little darker green - but that just me. I do wonder though, if you'd have done that here, matched the bottom green to that in the top section, would the image have been more coherent? Possibly, but you would have lost the wonderful sense of light that you have in the reflection.

Overall: A really effective image which has offered you a number of choices - going colour has really worked out for you. Good stuff.

Wonder
by Geee

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: Sometimes in this comment series, I comment on an image than has wider than 'just' niche appeal - I think this is straying into that area (that's a good thing!) I was going to say that the light at the back of the image is what makes this for me - then I saw her feet! She's practically walking on water. I also really like the way the light is catching her hair.

Critical stuff: the cropping of the head in the reflection is a little distracting - the image is strong enough to carry it but I think it does matter.

Overall: A great image of a charming scene which benefits from great light.

This is Britain
by shetland

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: This is an image with a great deal of impact. The story telling in the image is very rich and it has a journalistic feel. Do I like looking at it - no, but I like that you've offered it up, I like that you make me think about the real world and how other pictures will look if not wholly contrived, at last subjectively framed. Now I know 'framing' is in essence what photography is and I know that you too have done this here, but it feels raw, genuine, uninfluenced by you.

Critical stuff: Not a vision for every audience, probably even more so if you are British - just a bit too close to the mark for some. Photographically, the lighting is flat and the verticals aren't vertical, but that's irrelevant - this is a different form of communication to the crafting of an artistic photographic vision. Any attempt to rectify the technical imperfections here would do the image an injustice - lose the rawness, lose the image.

Overall: I recognise the image, the character, the scene - this is more typical than many of us would like to imagine. A lot of tourists who come to the UK see London, York, the rolling hills of Devon, the Lake District but yes this really is Britain! If I look beyond the macro scene what do I see? Beer, milk, more beer, the computer, the chair, the stains - bedsit living at its most gritty. And then there's the axe - I look at him and how he's looking at you (about to tell you to put the fu**ing camera away!) I want to give him the benefit of the doubt... but there is the axe, at hand, ready.

I look again - I look at what he is wearing - a spinal brace? an injured man, more confined by circumstance than he would like? The flag, the patriotism and of course alcohol does dull the pain... I begin to wonder again, what price has he paid? This is Britain but is it really his Britain, has he been well served by his country.......?

Thought provoking stuff - an inspired choice for a Free Study.

Dawn on the Ranch
by signal2noise

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: This image has a real softness to it - the blanket of fog is quite cosseting. I like that we can just about discern some layers of depth at the tree line too. The composition is a lesson in itself - the foreground frame thing isn't that interesting but then I imagine it not there and the image becomes quite depleted.... imagine a more engaging foreground subject and again the image would feel diminished; I think you've got it so right here - the frame thing adds structure and a focal point without stealing the show. However, the real deal maker here is the colour and light - shot at a special time of day and boy was it worth it.

Critical stuff: Not too much but the slight off-focus of the frame thing bothers me just a little - not gone enough for us to appreciate that the eye is deliberately being drawn elsewhere but not sharp enough for us to settle on it. In many ways, that's just a side effect of the whole compositional choice - I've already mentioned how I like how the frame thing works by being there but unobtrusive....

Overall: A great image which has a well crafted feel.

Nostalgic
by mqnaufal

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 my Mu (most underrated) award:

Positives: Great, great shot! Reminds me in many ways of .

There are so many excellent elements to this shot - but what I like best is the merge into shadow at the bottom of the image. I also love the smoothness of the curtains.

Critical stuff: Absolutely nothing!

Overall: An immaculate image - 10.