Moonlight Serenade
by patrinus

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Hello. Congratulations on your ribbon. You have received many comments on your image and many of your commentors can give you better technical advice than I can, so I will not attempt to do so here.

Oddly enough (and as I mentioned in a thread somewhere relating to this image) birds do fly at night, especially large birds during the migratory seasons. The heat of the sun would dehydrate the birds quickly and they could not travel the long miles they do if they attempted to migrate during the daylight.

Anyhow, this is a competent and compelling image and you were nicely rewarded for it.

I wish you continued success in your DPC Challenges.

My Mother's Dark Side
by valenzuelamauricio

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Hello. This is your first Challenge and you have done well. You have a strong image here and one that, in my opinion, meets the Challenge well. It is well photographed, for the most part, and the composition is beautiful. And you have an understanding mother to allow you to photograph her at such an early hour of the day.

I think you know the area around the model's nose is 'hot' but you couldn't do much about it with Basic Editing. The remainder of the technicals, to me, are just fine.

For some reason - and it happens - our voters sometimes overlook a good image. I think they did so with this one.

I wish you much success in your participation in DPC.

night terrors
by mesmeraj

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Fabulous image. I find that you never know what interpretation of the surroundings you'll get with blacklight, when it lights up an area. It is an exciting tool to use and you used it well with the white background.

Composition is fine and the image tells a great story. The use of grain of course adds drama and tension to the image of the terrified woman.

It's impossible to judge what our voters will see in an image. Many were stopped by it and felt moved to comment. To me, this was a high compliment to your art.

The score? Well, take it as a badge of honor.

You could win awards with this image. And I hope you do.

Candlelight Romnce
by tofarley

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I'm pleased to have the chance to look at this nice image done with the IS Canon S2. The contrast between the good looking wood and the red colors in the composition work well to bring this all together. I like the draping of the red fabric from left to right very much. I do wonder if the cropping is just a bit tight on the right side. That last candle looks pretty close to the frame edge. But that's subjective, of course.

Because the image is a bit soft and the ISO is quite high at 400, I expect this was hand-held. I find that when I'm using a small camera and don't want to attach it to a tripod I can sometimes get a pretty good exposure by balancing the camera on a book or two. Just a thought.

I hope you are enjoying DPC. I'll look forward to seeing more of your images.

Two Candles
by tonyv

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

(before I forget, I want to say your "Sunset Slalom" is a spectacular image. truly good seeing! and a nice use of that 50-500mm lens)

Okay, on to the image at hand. I disagree with your commentors who seemed to require proof of the existence of candles. You say candles are present. So be it!

The only thing I can think of to critique in this image is the that subject matter is not really strong. The backlighting is a great idea and the red brick wall gives off a nice textural background. The leaves are (imo) not really strong enough to either carry a story, or to be a really pleasing image to, say, hang on a wall.

Then, you might consider a different cropping for this image, concentrating more on the light and cropping out a lot more of the dark areas at the bottom, right side, and yes, even the top. This would give a more intense glow to the candle-lit portions of your frame.

Technicals look fine.

I wish you well in your future Challenges.

Nostalgic Studio Lights
by gr8dane

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

A very pleasant fantasy scene, well photographed. The out-of-scale candles fit in well because of the fantasy aspect. I very much like the blurred background; I have just a bit of a problem with the shadowy figures of the child and woman entering from the right. And in your very good stage setting, I wonder if you could find something to disguise the bases of the figurines. Perhaps some 'snow' would do the trick.

Anyhow, overall: good technicals and a nice whimsical approach to the Challenge .

Looks as if you are enjoying your experience with DPC.

A Feeling Of Christmas
by TUBORG

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

What a lovely image you have here. I'm pleased to have the chance to look at it more carefully.

It's nicely balanced in the frame and the confetti-like dots of color in the background not only tie the image together, but add a good deal of sparkle to the composition. I like the lighting very much. YOu created a bit more mystery by leaving the base of the candles to the imagination.

It may be that people were expecting more merchandising in the Holiday Catalog theme, and while this is a lovely image it doesn't sell anything.

Nevertheless, it's a good photograph and one I hope you enjoy.

Forget the Power Saw - Give Him Something He Might Actually Use
by alfresco

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Oh, dear. This one. Why me!
Okay, I got the joke out of the way.

Seriously, the technicals on this are just fine. You kept the center of interest on the box with that nice 1.8 aperture and it's well-positioned in the frame. I like the bit of red that complements the green and all goes perfectly on the gold stand. The red background of course, keys in the seasonal theme.

So, it is appealing merchandising and I expect if the box contained (oh, say) chocolate-covered cherries, you'd probably be close to the front page!

Keep up the good work.

Make a Move
by Phil

Comment:
more of a frame than I like, but super pic of that cat and wonderful colors. 9

The light between sunrise and the moon: Candlelight
by moonjeong

Comment:
Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Hello, moonjeong! How lucky I am to get to look at another of your images for the Critique Club.

Your image is just lovely, with good composition and a nice mood. Did you use a tripod? I think it would have helped this very nice photograph if it was just a little sharper and a tripod is good for that under difficult lighting conditions. Then, with a tripod, you could experiment with using a lower ISO to make it even more colorful.

I guess people were looking for literal candles providing "candlelight" rather than the quotation you offered. That may be why your score is not higher!

I hope you are pleased with this image. It is a nice one.