Venetian Shades
by jbaram

Comment:
Critique Club:

Well, it's definitely High Contrast!...and quite dizzying!

I'm not sure if I like the crop. Although it does make it clear that the subject is window blinds, I think I would like to see a closer crop. With all the psychedelic colors, I think it would look great as more of an abstract.

There seems to be some distracting jagged edges in the blinds but those could have been caused by one of the many plug-ins you listed in your comments. It looks to be a bit over-sharpened. I'm not sure what all those plug-ins do but it does seem to be a bit of overkill on the processing.

High Contrast is fairly easy to achieve in camera. It looks like you've taken an ordinary photo and made it high contrast through a LOT of processing. I know how much fun it is to use all the cool filters and plug-ins but sometimes less really is more. I would suggest working more on making your photography speak and not letting the processing be the star of the show. Just my opinion, of course.

Good luck in future challenges! :-)

Who Took My Branch Away....! HELP!!!
by Judi

Comment:
Critique Club:

This is a very cute set-up with bright, cheerful colors. The little piece of green leaves is a nice touch.

While I do like the white background, the lighting seems a bit harsh or the levels/curves were overly adjusted. The hard shadows are a little distracting and could be softened a bit by moving your subjects farther away from the background.

The close crop on the right is effective in conveying the sense of urgency on the part of the bird to leave the scene.

I noticed the processing steps in your comments. I'm not sure if you've listed them in the order in which you performed the steps but if you did, I would suggest cropping and resizing before you sharpen. Sharpening should be the last step in processing.

Good luck in future challenges!

Ronin
by Nazgul

Comment:
outstanding shot! i love the muted colors and textured feel. perfect! even the background :P

Bite me
by heida

Comment:
lol...what a pretty face!

Taupo Dusk
by rayz1

Comment:
Critique Club:

This certainly is high contrast and I think it met the challenge topic very well. There are a couple of things you could work on to make photos such as this even better.

1. Pay close attention to your horizon. While it's hard to tell here how level the horizon is by looking at the tops of the trees, you can tell that it's slightly off by looking at the water line.

2. The sillhouette os the clump of grass/reeds is very nice but it's so close to the center of the pic that it's competing with the sunset for my attention. Composing the shot with the grass in the corner would still give you some nice foreground interest but wouldn't be in the way of your sunset.

The color banding in the sky is kinda hard to avoid given the small file size we have to work with so there is often nothing you can do about that.

All in all, a very nice shot. Good luck in future challenges! :)

Feeding Frenzy #2
by Skip

Comment:
LOL...i just found this one! definitely a frenzy! :)

Swinging Foot Bridge Entrance
by SJCarter

Comment:
nice composition and lines. i like the sepia tone...works well for this type of image.

primalscream.jpg
by toddhead

Comment:
lol...that middle image reminds me of Henry Rollins! :-)

maasai woman (DSWF)
by ellamay

Comment:
just an outstanding photo!

Different Drummer
by sher

Comment:

Originally posted by Joey Lawrence: sher rawks more than my rocking-chair grama on speed!

go granny go!

lol...you're thilly :)