Architectural Abstract
by artvet

Comment:
Brilliant shot--I had this pegged for top 10. I don't know what went wrong, but it's still a great photo. Congratulations.

Stairway to Heaven
by LevT

Comment:
Excellent shot--congrats on your top 20 placement. I thought this would be in the top 10 for sure.

Skirball Center Museum & Gallery
by mirdonamy

Comment:
Congratulations on your top 20 finish--I had this pegged for a ribbon. It's exquisite!

Snow Bambi
by pitsaman

Comment:
Excellent.

Eastern Collared Lizard
by Gatorguy

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club:

This is a very nice image that did pretty well in the challenge.

Hits: Good composition, the head of the lizard is in the thirds 'sweet spot'. Color combinations are quite pleasing in this image, and it looks reasonably sharp on the lizards body at least. Most importantly, the shot shows good lens bokeh, which is working to enhance the foreground.

Misses: The bokeh is good for keeping the background "out of the way" but does not make the foreground pop as it sometimes does. It would be nice too if the tail and rear foot of the lizard was in the frame.

Perhaps this is the correct coloration, but there does appear to be an orange/green cast here. Using the white balance tool in Bibble, I found some other white balances which look more balanced to me (though I can't say for sure they are right).



Note I've also adjusted curves a bit here, which darkens the background and further highlights the lizard and underplays the background while making use of the the lens bokeh.

I hope this helps. (Let me know if you think this white balance is closer to the real world scene. I don't know lizards, but I don't see the cast this way, and his colors look stunning in the revision.)

Message edited by author 2005-01-22 01:17:20.

String
by riotspyne

Comment:
That's fantastic. Excellent work!

Kimmel Verizon Abstract I
by banmorn

Comment:
Very nice contrast of lines and curves. Beautiful as per your usual work!

Ready for Morning
by Chefboz

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club. Here are my thoughts on your photo.

Hits: This is well composed, and a good use of shallow depth of field. The technique serves well to shift the emphasis to the Alka Seltzer. Colors are good, and sharpness is good where it needs to be.

Misses: This misses on two grounds; first, there's a fair amount of noise in the image, not a lot, but it stands out in the wall and particularly in the OOF foreground. Second, the extra alka s. foil that is sort of blocked by the cork connects these elements; it would have, IMHO, worked better if there was a gap there. I think it might have also benefited from a human "actor" as well.

Score: Most people didn't get what Bokeh really is, so if you didn't have a mottled background, it wasn't bokeh. But even to my definition, this wouldn't strike me as a good example of bokeh, because the OOF are too close to real focus to show the lens' bokeh. Because of that, it looks more like an example of shallow focus.

Overall, this was a well thought out photo that tells a story. It's executed pretty well, but missed a bit on standing out as a demonstration of the challenge topic.

Mount Rushmore
by RayEthier

Comment:
Lovely light, very nice colors, and great clarity. A small area of burn-out in the clouds but not noticable until I looked closely. Nice work.

Waiting For Santa
by Damian

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club:

I was impressed with this photo during the challenge, and it was among my top pics. However, looking at this with a critical eye, and considering the challenge, we can perhaps see why it didn't finish as strong as it might have.

Exposure: The exposure on this photo is excellent, and the use of lighting is stunning. This is one of the photos great strengths, as well as beautiful clarity and sharpness.

Composition: Good. While the composition of this photo works pretty well, when you think about it longer, there are some minor issues. First, the photo is almost divided in half by the boys face and the background. I think it would have worked better if it were more uneven, perhaps cropping a bit more on the right. Or if there's simply more tree in the original, then I'd extend the left.

Second, the background actually competes with the boy. In the background half, we see some bright streamer decorations which compete with the lines and highlights of his face. This makes this an excellent situation to use the lens bokeh to emphasize the foreground. However, the depth of field seleced is too great, or the boy is simply too close to the tree, to use bokeh for foreground emphasis. It is this fact that held this image back in the scoring.

Third, as to the waiting theme, for some reason, this composition does not carry that for me. Perhaps because we are so "up close" with the boy. Because of that, it's harder to envision the whole scene, and instead, it seems to work more as a simple christmas portrait.

Aesthetics: Overall the photo works as a lovely portrait, with the crisp focus and wonderful light on the boy. Bokeh could have been put to better use here, but now, after the challenge, a bit more blur applied to the background would also achieve a nice effect.

I hope you find this helpful. Congratulations on a beautiful photograph.