Classical
by Paul

Comment:
Wow, this is really gracefully and tastefully done. Great job.

Common Cupboard Chaos
by fisheye

Comment:
was gonna be a 5 but bumping to a 7 just because you have Homer in there.

Thuttha
by aznym

Comment:
This photo has all the making of being great but the kid laughing really takes away from the mood. 10 without the kid down to a 7.

Aspyre
by Trinilos

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

Is that there is really a bit too much going on in the shot.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

Your center framing works well for the composition on this but the background only distracts. This shot would be well served on a clean, black background. If possible I would suggest composing the shot so that the background was mostly empty space.

The lighting, aka the fire, gives off a bit of an odd color to the ground and background, perhaps a long shutter speed coupled with a rear curtain sync flash would help that. The image is a bit noisy and I think you could have dropped the iso down quite a bit since you were using such a long shutter speed.

I would suggest not as long of a shutter speed, 15 seconds is a really long time and 3 seconds would have been plenty and you could have gotten smoother light trails and the whole image would flow better (example here )

Challenge:

Meets the challenge but it doesn’t scream “dance”. If this wasn’t entered in a dance challenge I am not sure I would think this was a photo of dancing but regardless I like your take on the subject and it was interesting.

Artistic/Emotion:

This has all the makings of a really artistic shot but for me some technical work takes away from that.

Summary:

Not a bad finish at all for your third challenge and great job on a personal best. This shot scored very well for the challenge and you received some excellent comments during voting, all in all I would say it is a success.

Are You Looking At Me?
by Nuzzer

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

Is that it is another macro bug shot.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

Great job filling the frame with the subject and I think your composition is spot on. Lighting seems well done as well and the colors are rich and natural. I think your focus is very well done, super sharp and detailed in parts and smoothly blurred in others.

Challenge:

I think this met the challenge well, not sure what some of the voters were thinking when they couldn’t see the connection. Maybe if the bug was sitting on a recognizable object (tomato or something) then they could have made the connection better.

Artistic/Emotion:

N/A

Summary:

I think this is an excellent macro shot that, in my opinion, should have finished around a 6. I don’t think it was anything technical that hurt this shot but was rather a combination of voters not making the connection to the garden and voters who just don’t care for macro bug shots.

wheelie
by kellmak10

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

The subject seems a bit blurry.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

.The crop on this just doesn’t work all that well, I would of liked the whole bike in the frame and perhaps the tires on either diagonal end of the frame. The power lines also distract.

If this is a setup shot and you could I would suggest using a reflector to get some light back onto the subject. You lose a lot of details in the shadows, reflecting existing light back up at the bike would do wonders for that.

Your focus also seems off, it almost looks like you focused on the cars in the background and that is why the bike just seems blurry. Your camera looks like it handled the 800 iso fairly well so I think your setting were fine, I just think (if you used auto focus) that the camera focused on the background.

Your processing was fine but in the end if you start with a blurry subject you will end up with a blurry subject.

Challenge:

This meets the challenge and you got the camera down nice and low for this.

Artistic/Emotion:

N/A

Summary:

A neat idea in a cool setting that fell short from the focus. As you continue to learn you will start noticing objects in the background that you want out of the shot and you will get better at focusing, high speed shots can be tricky to stop in the sweet spot. In the end this finished about where I would expect. Neat idea and a nice perspective but it just fell short on the technical side. Keep at it.

Vertigo
by Elisium

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

Great perspective!

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

You framed this shot really well and it looks great. If I were to nitpick I would say it would be nice to have something in the frame that would showcase the height of the object but overall it is quite nice.

Lighting is good for the and the only issue I have is the slightly blown out area in the upper left but the light and shadows on the subject all look lovely. I wonder if you cold have shot this from the other side to get the sun behind you; that would help the bright area of sky and the bit of glare at the top of the subject.

The focus is good but overall very soft. I think with the tones you went with the softness works well but overall it could be a bit sharper. The overall processing seems nice, the contrast works well and I love the colors you have and tone. If this was an advanced editing challenge I would suggest lightening some of the shadow areas just a touch and maybe sharpen.

Challenge:

Meets the challenge very well

Artistic/Emotion:

The tones and color and angle really give this a nice artistic shot.

Summary:

Congrats on a personal best and good finish. And all of this with a point and shoot camera, nice work. Keep shooting and entering the challenges. Make sure you brace yourself when you take shots to eliminate camera shake especially if you are zoomed in, this will help the sharpness of your shots. Overall this shot did quite well in the challenge with just a few technical details (focus, light) keeping you below a 6.

counting my blessings
by mrturtell

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

As mentioned in your comments, it is really far too dark.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

As far as the exposure issue I believe the commenters covered that pretty well so I will go over the other technical aspects.

The composition on this is fine, I like how you didn’t center the main subject however there is a lot of open space and a lot going on that I feel takes away from the main subjects. I would suggest getting in close to the people and really filling most of the frame with them. This setup is great to use for story telling but between the landscape, fishing hole, rods and sled it is a bit much. Perhaps center on the 2 people just walking in the snow or the older person pulling the kid on the sled or even kneeling down together holding a fishing rod.

Challenge:

Meets the challenge well and will relate well with those with children/grandchildren.

Artistic/Emotion:

This had the potential for a great emotion shot but unfortunately fell flat.

Summary:

The biggest thing that hurt you was the exposure. This would have probably been a solid 5 if properly exposed. But you live and learn and now you can only go up (hopefully) Keep practicing and having fun and enter as much as you can and you will learn and grow. There are many great resources on the internet about exposure and learning to use a digital camera that are excellent. And if you ever have questions you can always stop by the forums and someone will likely be able to help you out.

Masks
by odriew

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

This looks like an old Polaroid shot.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

I think you did well with all the technical work based on the fact that you wanted this to have this certain feel to it. I could suggest framing the subject differently, having even lighting, vibrant colors, spot on sharpness but then it wouldn’t even be close to the same shot.

Challenge:

You met it head on (pun intended) and gave us something different to look at.

Artistic/Emotion:

This shot has a fun artistic feel to it and the processing and everything make it look like an old time Polaroid photo.

Summary:

This was a difficult shot to critique since it appears you really wanted to have this Polaroid feel to the shot and you nailed that, unfortunately most of the voters didn’t care for it. You had a few people that appreciated the photo though but in the end most people were just unimpressed. I think a more intriguing composition and a subject that grabs the voters’ attention would have let them pause for a moment to appreciate the feel of the shot but in the end I feel most people gave this photo a few seconds then they hit the low vote. Keep shooting from the heart, have fun and submit the stuff you love and try not to worry about the vote. The comments you received on this make it more of a success then the average vote.

Olympic Headware
by kellmak10

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impressions:

My first impression of this was really what am I looking at? I didn’t realize this was the torch until I read it in your description but I understand why you choose to focus on the headwear more as that was the challenge.

Technical (Comp, lighting, color, focus, Processing):

The framing on this shot doesn’t add much to it and makes it feel more like a snap shot. The rule of thirds is an excellent guideline and if you are to break it you should ask if the photo benefits from a different composition. The flag on the right is a bit distracting and I don’t care for the torch being cropped off in a distracting way.

Natural light can be difficult to work with especially if you are shooting from a distance. Judging from your low iso and f-stop and 1/80th shutter speed I am guessing you were zoomed in a bit and the light was just a bit too dark still. The lighting isn’t bad but there just isn’t much contrast between the white uniform and background.

The focus on this shot seems a bit off and I am guessing it is from the low light and the need to use a lower shutter speed to compensate for that. The whole shot is very soft and a bit blurry.

Challenge:

Meets the challenge and is unique.

Artistic/Emotion:

This shot has the potential for really showcasing the pride in carrying the Olympic torch but the soft focus and crop take away from that.

Summary:

This is not a bad shot at all from a point and shoot especially in the light and low shutter speed. Obviously this is not a shot you could set up so with using what was available I think it came out well. I would be interested to see the shots with the torch to see how they look.

In the end I feel this shot scored about where I would expect. Be careful of your composition and cropping and enter the shots you really like and try not to worry so much about how the score will end up. Learn from each shot and you will continue to grow, I see you already have the top photo for the equipment page for your camera so just keep at it and remember to have fun.