Whispered Drops of Morning Dew
by geekssweet

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

i think this is a fine idea for zen, and you captured a good scene.

technically, however, i think the shot is lacking. first and foremost, it seems out of focus. focus is the number one thing most voters look for at dpc. if the shot is not totally bad, you can make it sharper with an unsharp mask.

the colors seem washed out overall. a contrast boost will make the colors pop more and really make the photo stand out.

finally, i'd spend a little time with the clone stamp tool and work on cleaning up the spots on the base of the flower (the green part). although they're insignificant to you, they are pretty prominent in the macro and can be removed in an advanced editing challenge.

hope this helps!

Let The Day Go By
by JSAYB

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

while the subject is certainly "relaxed," i'm not sure how well this fit the "zen" challenge. people shots did not seem to do very well in this challenge.

technically, i like the crop and the expression on his face. the colors are pretty dull, however, and adding some contrast would be a good idea.

to answer your question about cloning: the best thing to do would be to select the area that you want to clone out using the lasso tool (or any other selection tool). the tone of the water is pretty even throughout the photo, so you can pick up part of the water above his arm and clone it into the area over the ruffle with little color difference. using the selection tool first will prevent the cloning tool from bleeding over into areas of the photo you don't want to remove.

hope this helps!

Floating
by cloudsme

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

i think this shot is hilarious and extremely well-composed. technically i don't have too many suggestions for you: the point-of-view, shadow, and crop (i almost typed 'crap') all work very well together.

although it's calm and balanced, it seems that people shots didn't fare too well in the zen challenge. i think that's unfortunate, because i believe this fits very well.

sorry i don't have more details than this. i realy think you nailed it.

Frozen in time
by lastef

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

this is a great image that really stands out from the pack. my only comment here is about the coloring: the image seems overly gray in general, and i wonder if there's anything that can be done to punch it up a bit? some dodging and burning of the clouds would make the scene that much more dramatic while still preserving the serenity that the reflection provides. i'd also be very curious to see this in a strong black and white with a lot of contrastinessâ„¢

African Lion Safari
by chris_clarry

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

for a portrait shot, this is very well done. the model has a good pose and a good environment surrounds her.

i'm not sure how well it fits the zen challenge. although it does seem peaceful, it also seems posed and rigid. using a person in the challenge might need to be done less formally.

the color is good, if a bit oversaturated. the face in particular looks unnatural in its tone. if i had to guess, i would say the soft focus is probably what really killed your score here. it's difficult to pull off well, and at DPC a lot of people just consider it "out of focus" instead and score accordingly.

Still
by MacDonald

Comment:
greetings from the critique club.

overall i think this is a great idea for the zen challenge. the ripples in the water really add to the overall composition, so that was a good find on your part.

i would like to see the colors pop more, however. they do seem a bit washed out. more contrast would really make the scene vibrant overall.

otherwise, this is a fine shot. good sharpness, good DoF, and a solid composition.

The Korean Bell
by Fastexposure

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

i think the asian influence of this shot is a great take on "zen." however, the number one thing that killed you here is the lack of focus in the shot. with a f-stop of 9, you should have been able to get pretty crisp, sharp lines in at least part of the image and i just don't see that here. focus is almost the first thing most voters look for, so i don't think the "soften" helps you here.

the other thing about this image that strikes me is the lack of contrastinessâ„¢. the tones are muted and pretty flat...i'd like to see you try to use more of the light to dark range especially in the part of the image that is stone. the overall gray doesn't do much to make the image pop.

Meditation on Forgiveness
by swallace

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

overall this is a very nice portrait. the tones and the light falloff work extremely well here. a little bit more diffuse light might be better, so you could avoid those hotspots on your cheek and neck that are pretty prominent now.

i'm going to guess that a lot of your score resulted from a lack of a "zen" feeling rather than a lack of technical execution. i think this would have scored much better in a different kind of challenge. although the subject is at rest, the expression on his face seems more anguished than peaceful.

thanks for posting your EXIF information. you should try shooting in RAW a little bit so that you can start to explore some of the tone manipulation that it provides. you might be able to get much more range out of your images than you currently do.

good luck in the future!

Early start at the Yacht club
by julesski

Comment:
greetings from the critique club:

i like the silhouette of this image. however, i don't really see anything "zen" about it, and i'm guessing that might explain some of your score.

some areas of improvement might include straightening the horizon (tilted down to the right), and increasing the contrastinessâ„¢ and saturation of the sky. right now it's just very hazy and flat and doesn't offer much to set off the silhouette.

the panorama aspect ratio is fun, but it's hard to accomplish on DPC because 640 pixels is really not a lot. maybe try it again on the august free study that allows bigger images?

Ripple of Thought
by DigiFotoBuddy

Comment:
greetings from the critique club!

i really like the concept of this shot overall. the fire and water are both very zen, and it was a good idea to try to incorporate them both.

the colors are great, and the ripples were captured well. i think the biggest downfall of this shot is that the candle it out of focus. focus is the most important thing i look for in a shot -- no focus = bad score, no matter how cool the image "could" be. in the future, you could try to affix the candle in place with a toothpick or something to keep it in place while the water moves.

a little bit more diffuse light on the lighting of the scene would help soften everything more as well, and make it more "zen" like.

overall a good idea. with a bit more elbow grease it could be a wonderful composition.