SETI
by Nuzzer

Comment:
Brilliant concept. I don't know whether the sky was this monochromatic when you shot it, but It feels a little bit artificial to me. If you desaturated it, you might want to try it with a bit more color. There are some artifacts around the dish that bother me a bit. A bit of the ole dodge and burn to boost the contrast of the sky and this would be a 9 or a 10 for me.

Fresh laid Hawaiian Red Dirt
by Sheryll

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: My initial reaction to your photo was that it didn’t seem to fit the challenge very well. Although there was dirt in the photo, and in the title, it didn’t seem to be a photo OF dirt, or where dirt played a very significant role.

Composition: The comments you got on composition are correct in my view. A tilted horizon drives me buggy but that’s personal. And the horizon cutting right down the center of the frame weakens the composition. Try to lower or raise it in the frame next time.

Technicals: Focus is a little soft. I’m not sure why. You shot it fast enough to stop any motion. It may have been a focusing error in your camera. It is also a little over exposed. This might contribute to the illusion of softness. In your post processing, try darkening the photo slightly, increasing the contrast slightly, and possibly boosting the saturation slightly. I think this would sharpen up the image.

Overall: You live in a beautiful part of the world. My final suggestion would be to try to make the beauty of your surroundings a focus of your photography. Make your photos ambassadors for Hawaii.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

blackmail_dirt
by PhotoDave

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: Congratulations on your first challenge entry! You’re off to a good start. I liked the photo right away when I saw it but I think it could be improved with a few simple changes.

Composition: The composition is fine but if I were editing it I would crop it a little tighter. I would crop out the diagonal tub line at the bottom, and the tub artifact mid frame on the left. They are a little distracting. To balance the photo, I might then have to crop a little off the top. The result would be a tighter image with your subject filling more of it.

Technicals: Technical execution is fine. You might want to try slightly more contrast to add shape to the boy’s back. And you might like the result if you soften some of the reflections on the shower walls.

Overall: Although I didn’t vote this challenge, I would have given this photo a score a bit higher than it’s average.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

Dirt to life
by Grandad

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: I like what I think you are trying to do here but execution falls just short of pulling it off. The strength of this photo could have been the juxtaposition of green life and dark dirt.

Composition: Composition is fine.

Technicals: Focus is fine. DoF is fine although a little deeper or a little shallower might have strengthened the photo by making the leaves stand out more. Exposure is fine. What would have improved this for me would be greater contrast, especially on the leaves and more saturated colors. This would have made the leaves really stand out and make the statement of life juxtaposed against the dirt.

Overall: One thing to think about is how well the concept fits the challenge. Although the photo contains dirt, the subject strays from the challenge theme. I sometimes have trouble in this area so I am sensitive to the issue and how it can drag down scores.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

Cold and dirty
by TUBORG

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: Your photo is representative of a dark genre which is popular at DPC at the moment. Because I am not fond of the genre, I was not particularly wowed by your photo. Looking past this, it is an excellent photo which packs quite an emotional payload.

Composition: Excellent, I can’t offer any suggestions for improvement. I like the placement of the subject and the background works well.

Technicals: To me, the strongest technical merit here goes to lighting. It is PERFECT. It is just enough to show off the texture of the fabric for context. And it is plenty to light the face dramatically. All other technical aspects are very very good.

Overall: Excellent photo. A worthy member of its genre. But for me personally, I like other photo’s in your portfolio better.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

Dirty Twisted Nail
by snaffles

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: I am sorry to say my initial reaction to this was pretty negative. Although I didn’t vote, if I had I would have given it a 4 â€Â¦ possibly a 3. Partly this was due to a subject I didn’t resonate with and partly due to execution.

Composition: You have a diagonal composition. Usually this works best when the diagonal divides the photo into 2 regions with different elements above and below the diagonal. In this case, the region above and the region below are essentially the same. So the power of the diagonal comp was lost.

Technicals: I agree with the comments you got about color, post processing and focus. I am not sure what was causing the issues but they detract from the image. Someone mentioned the background looked like fertilizer. To me it looks like broccoli. I think if you try for lighting that reveals true color and post processing that preserves it, you will have better photos. Watch your exposure and try to fill the histogram all the way to both ends.

Overall: Actually, I like what you were trying to do here. If the execution had been stronger, you probably would have won an extra point, maybe a point and a half in the voting.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

miner
by guillermo21

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: Although I didn’t vote this challenge, my initial reaction was that this was a middle-of-the-pack photo. Further reflection didn’t bump it in my opinion, either up or down.

Composition: Good composition, although it feels tight to me. There is essentially no room around the face for context (more later). But given the crop, the comp’s fine.

Technicals: Excellent. Lighting, tonal range, focus, DoF â€Â¦ essentially everything is spot on.

Overall: You got some comments that this looked “fake” or “made up.” But I don’t think this was the photo’s greatest issue. For me, what would have “made” the photo would have been the inclusion of context. Put the face in a mine, or in front of mining equipment, or something to lend it meaning. I do agree that the dirt is pretty neat â€Â¦ it doesn’t look dirty, but rather applied. If he had rubbed his hands all over his face smearing the dirt, working it into his pores, clumping it up in his whiskers â€Â¦ it would have seemed more realistic. This has to do with the fitness for the theme more than the photo on its own merit.

As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.

Pining for the cedar
by snaffles

Comment:
Cleaver visual pun!

"Light On White, Drizzle The Mayo!"
by 777STAN

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club: I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: Your photo “interests” me. Worth looking at for awhile and trying to puzzle out what’s going on.

Composition: Fine, better than fine in fact, good. Probably a little busy â€Â¦ maybe fewer bulbs to focus my attention.

Technicals: All fine except that the photo is over exposed. Here is a good example where combining a hot photo with a cool version to broaden the dynamic range might work well. Keep the hot light, but cool the bread et al. You could do this with multiple layers in Photoshop. Or you might use masks to do it.

Conclusions: I like your out-of-the-box thinking. You executed the photo well. Managing the exposure better and simplifying the image would have raised the score.

As always, this is my personal opinion. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog.

lucidity
by PeterPic

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club: I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:

Personal Reaction: This is a pleasing photo which I like quite a bit. I didn’t vote this challenge but if I had, I would have given it a 5.

Composition: Very good composition. Centered horizontally is fine for this subject. Offset vertically is good. The general reaction I would expect from this composition is positive. I like the vignette effect (fade to white around the edges!) It was perfect to set off the petals.

Technicals: Everything technical about the photo is positive except the center of the flower is over exposed. The exposure has blown some of the available detail here. If you have the chance and the inclination, try reshooting with a couple of stops of exposure comp and see if it doesn’t improve it.

Conclusions: Good idea. Well executed. Probably a 6 or 6.5 photo here if you manage exposure better.

As always, this is my personal opinion. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog.