The Rock
by mgarsteck

Comment:
Well you didn't get your 7 but you did get a nice ribbon and a wonderful shot. Congrats.

Spiraling Down
by AllenP

Comment:
Wow what a score, Great image here and a huge congrats. It definitely deserved the blue.

of things to come
by posthumous

Comment:
Wow 80th place??? Some people. Oh well I thought this was brilliant and was one of my higher votes. I gave this a 9 as it has more emotion then most of the shots, certainly more then mine. Another great shot Don.

A Bright Idea
by vawendy

Comment:
Congrats on a top 10 Wendy, I just barely finished above you.

Specular complementarity
by rio78

Comment:
Wine glass and a water drop, all you are missing is a bug to make it a triple threat :) But seriously this is such a well done shot. The lighting is excellent, timing perfect and your attention to detail to set this up just right is great. My only 10 for this challenge. I will be very surprised if this doesn't grab the blue with around a 7.5 average. Good luck.

Shaving the Shadow (But He Never Goes Away)
by ryanwest

Comment:
I think this was under appreciated. I love the lighting and the tilt on this shot. It really grabs your eye.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
by Judi

Comment:
I thought this may have been you. Great shot and great to see you back. This was one of my top picks.

Jump....interrupted.
by MattO

Comment:
Professional capture here. I would wager a bet this is the work of MattO

IMG_8527-1
by Eagle40Fox2

Comment:
I personally think you did an excellent job with your first HDR. Most people when the start out with the technique tend to go overboard in the processing (myself included) but you kept it more natural and it looks great. The clouds do seem a bit out of place, did you turn on the moving objects/people ghosting before you processed? May help or it may not.

I am curious as to how many exposures you used. The highlights are a bit more over exposed then I care for, but still not horrible. The biggest thing I have learned in this technique (besides not going overboard on the sliders) is to bracket the exposures more deliberately. What I mean is don't use an exposure that is mostly blown out but choose one where the shadows are exposed to how you like and on the other end use one where the highlights show the detail that you want. Then the other one(s) should cover the middle ground.

For example I have done some where I used 9-10 exposures but 1-2 on either end didn't add anything to the range and actually caused more problems. I find that in most situations 3-5 exposures covers the range nicely.

Keep working on it, you are off to a great start. Hope this helps.

Colour Inside the Lines
by hotpasta

Comment:
I was afraid this might get a DQ. Still a great shot though.