Blueberries
by assman

Comment:
Critique Club Comment

Composition : I like the composition quite a bit. The berries on the table looks quite natural.

Exposure/Lighting : I notice you shot F3.5 at 1/2 second which implies to me that you didn't have much light here. You may want to get hold of a portable light source and experiment with it a bit.

Focus : Your choice of a shallow Depth of Field didn't work for me. It looks focused more on the back of the container then on any berries.

Post Processing : I'm certain that you had your reasons for going Black&White on a challenge for Blue, but I'm not certain it worked to your benefit. It was risky and I have to applaud your courage, but I think the score here would have been MUCH higher for "Blue" blue berries.

Emotion/Challenge : I struggled with whether this shot met the challenge for sometime when I was voting. I finally decided to give it to you since I believe you wanted folks to think blue instead of merely see blue.... This kind of thinking can be the sign of a true artist. But you'll need to get your technique down better for folks to see what you are saying without being distracted by how you say it.

Opinion : While I'm not a big fan of this shot, I do applaud your vision and think that once you get over a few technical issues, you'll be doing some exciting things :)

Christmas Tree Ornament
by Mustbelost

Comment:
Critique Club Comment
Note : I'm somewhat biased here because I am a HUGE DeGrazia fan... I will try not to let that effect my critique :)

Composition : Nicely positioned, although it may have worked better zoomed out just a hair and a tad to the right and higher. I would have liked to see what this looked like if you left the same space the ribbon takes on the top with empty space on the bottom. (But that's just me) Also from a further zoom, the tree might not have been as easily identified as "artificial". That part didn't bother me, but from the comments, it seems to have troubled some folks.

Exposure/Lighting : As noted, the lighting (flash?) was a bit strong. If you look at the left hand side of the ribbon, I think you'll see what I mean. There are ways to "tone-down" a flash, including laying a thin tissue over it. It diffuses the light and can make for a nice effect.

Focus : Nailed it... Beautiful :) Did you try any with a very shallow DoF so the 'tree' was a softer focus than the ornament? It might have been interesting.

Emotion/Challenge : There is no doubt you were on target for the challenge. Emotionally, this one triggered a memory of Christmas Past. My father gave my mother a DeGrazia ornament every year until she passed away.

Opinion : Wonderful shot.

Agapanthus
by sulamk

Comment:
Critique Club Comment
Note : I do not know the names of the parts of all flowers so I might call something a petal when it's some latin thing I can't pronounce... Please bear with me... :)

Composition : Nice macro. I have to agree with the comments that suggested it would have been helped by including the entire petal. Without them, my eye is dragged off the edge of the picture too often.

Exposure/Lighting : Beautifully lit and well exposed. The colors are rich and vibrant.

Focus : The three petals in the upper-right seems a little soft, but not to the point of distraction. DoF was handled well here in my opinion.

Emotion/Challenge : As noted in some of your comments, purple was the first color I thought of here. I certainly feel that there is enough blue to meet the challenge, but here it's risky to stray from the letter of the challenge. You didn't lose any points from me for it, but I'd bet you lost some from some folks.

Opinion : Very nice macro and inspirational (I plan to try a few flower macros myself now)... I think if you had included the whole of the flower and possibly played with Hue a bit to bring out more blue, this would have place quite nicely :)

Alien Blue
by Antithesis

Comment:
Critique Club Comment

Composition : I like the diagonal line of the straw but have to say that the line down the left side didn't do much for me. My eye kept getting pulled back to it and I kept wondering what it was and why it was there.

Exposure/Lighting : Again I found the lighting of the straw wonderful, but the rest was a bit dark and gloomy for me. From the title, I would guess that was your intent, but it didn't work for me.

Focus : Hate to keep going back to it, but I love the straw. The spots on the glass (especially upper left) were also in focus and hurt the shot overall for me.

Emotion/Challenge : You definitely hit the challenge solidly.

Opinion : As you've probably guessed, I really liked the straw... The left hand side of the shot left me wishing for a different crop. Did you try any other crops? Now that the size requirement is loosened up, you are much freer to explore non-conventional sizes. I think a thinner crop might have helped. Of course this is just my opinion and I could be wrong :)

Blues Bar
by mariomel

Comment:
Critique Club Comment

Composition : There are a lot of nice strong lines leading deep into this shot. I found the one table(sort of) in the front a little distracting, but there isn't much you could have done about it. There is a nice repetition of 3's here too... The groups of 3 lights leading to the back wall. Nicely done :)

Exposure/Lighting : Very nicely done. Especially considering you had no tripod. I like the shadows.

Focus : A little soft overall, but certainly not a problem (at least for me :) )

Post Processing : So this was a red bar? I never would have known it if you hadn't said it, which tells me your post processing was successful.

Emotion/Challenge : Nailed the challenge. It didn't have as much Wow as it could have, but I don't know what is missing.

Opinion : I enjoyed this shot and was a little surprised not to see it place higher.

Two Tone Tonic
by jmsetzler

Comment:
I assume from the "Yes... you should try this sometime :) It ain't easy..." that we can expect a 'How'd they do that?' for this one? I sure hope so! Congrats!!!

By the way, I like mushrooms and peppers on my pizza :)

Fading Factories in the Mountains
by nards656

Comment:
Critique Club Comment ~ Mike (MyQyl) Clark

Composition : Strong use of framing with the factory framed by the color of the turning leaves. The clock is positioned well for the 'rule of thirds' and the time on the clock (4:40) adds to the feeling you wanted to convey. It's almost quiting time, if you like it or not.

Exposure/Lighting : The somber, grey feel expresses what you wanted to say well. It just doesn't help much for a photograph. But I think what you were saying is more important to this picture then an eye pleasing exposure would have been.

Focus : The leaves in the forefront are very soft, but I assume you chose to do it since you used F2.8... Personally I'd like to see what would have resulted from a longer exposure with a greater DoF.

Emotion/Challenge : I can certainly see this accompanying an article like you described, but without that description, I had a hard time making the connection. While many folks claim titles shouldn't be considered, I think a more descriptive 'headline' may have helped... 'Small Town Plant Closure' or something similar might have given people more connection with the shot. Emotionally this is very strong.

Post Production : I'm curious if the grey-scale on the building is a result of the day or of turning down certain channels. Either way, it's well done.

Investigating a Fire
by jdincolsprings

Comment:
Critique Club Comment ~ Mike (MyQyl) Clark

Composition : Your choice of angle here was very interesting. It seems the camera was on the ground (possibly to support the 1 second exposure?) and it really gives the whole shot a heightened sense of importance. Very well chosen! There are several strong diagonals here and the angle you choose accents them well. As one commenter remarked, I also would have considered cropping the taillight out. It draws the eye a bit too much and detracts from the rest of the scene. Conversely, I can see you may have wanted it there to give more of an 'emergency' feel to the shot. When I crop it with a straightedge, I prefer it gone. But that's just me :)

Exposure/Lighting : A very difficult situation to shot ad you did it VERY well! The glare off the taillight is the only exposure problem I have, and that's not a big deal in my book. I like the way the 'night' builds negative space for you... Your subject is clearly marked by being the only place that 'night' isn't.

Focus : Nice sharp crisp focus with great DoF! The Cherry-Picker is a little blurry, but I assume that's due to movement (a person on it?) since further objects and closer objects are all clear.

Emotion/Challenge : You nailed it... Not only does it fit the challenge to a tee, it also invoked an emotional response.

Big Dipper Attacked By Leonid Meteor
by SSonnentag

Comment:
Critique Club Comment ~ Mike (MyQyl) Clark

Composition : I really like the use of the earth (foreground) and sky (background) and the proportions of each. While the horizon line doesn't exactly cross the 'third', the portion of the sky that is brighter does and i think it does it very effectively.

Exposure/Lighting : The full moon really was your friend for this shot as it lit the ground quite nicely :) Very nice catch of the meteor. The stars have hardly any rotational 'tail' at all! I see this is a combination of the 30 secs exposure and of shooting North (where the rotation is far less noticeable in the northern hemisphere). Excellent!

Focus : The smallest of nitpicks would be to point to the bush and ground just to the left of the center on the bottom as being 'soft' focus. I'm curious to know if that was someone(thing) moving there during the exposure? Otherwise, excellent!

Emotion/Challenge : I can think of MANY publications that would use this kind of shot in a heartbeat, so in my book, you nailed the challenge. I have to admit that I thought the title took away from the effectiveness of the shot though. It was a Sky and Telescope picture with a National Inquirer title. But it's not a title challenge :)

Opinion : I absolutely love this shot and hope to emulate it someday. Terrific capture! Congrats on 6th place.

A tribute to my partner´s blue eyes
by bcncrazy

Comment:
You seem to have a focus problem. I don't know what camera you used, but you were likely too close for it to focus properly. The best solution might be to back up a bit, and crop the image to get the framing you want. :)