Rose
by Drake

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club

An interesting image that meets the challenge well

What a lovely decayed flower head you have chosen to use and the vivid overexposed background really makes it stand out. I'm not sure I would regard the choice of subject as mundane especially with such beautiful hues as it has. So, feeling tired is your intended mood and I can see the relationship as can most of your voters with the general theme being one from melancholy through to death with similar expressions in between so in that respect I would say you achieved your goal, well done. For me the delicacy of the structure comes through strongest so I would probably have said 'fragile'.

Thanks for an interesting entry Drake

Tree Branch
by Phocal

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club

An interesting image that meets the challenge well

I find your stated mood interesting for the shot and one or two of your commenters came near to guessing it right but for me the sun and its glow is such a dominant aspect and I normally associate it with happiness and good things the mood it conveys to me is 'anticipation', the twig will be producing buds and growth will be coming soon. This is quite a difficult challenge to convey the mood you want effectively through an ordinary mundane subject. I think if you would have given much more emphasis to the web then yes, that would much more effectively convey a mood of 'apprehension'

Thanks for an interesting entry Ronnie

Rock salt
by snaffles

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club

An interesting image that meets the challenge well

You certainly met the challenge well in terms of your choice of subject but you forgot to state what mood you had in mind in your notes but I think your many commenters have probably done that for you? Your creativity stood you in good stead here to produce something much more interesting than would normally be associated with the original subject. I would have been interested in your exif data to understand more fully how you set it up but anyway the end result is interesting though I think it feels rather crowded, I think it may have been more convincing with fewer grains. I like the mono presentation and dark background.

Thanks for an interesting entry Susan

Message edited by author 2016-03-11 07:51:21.

An American Epidemic
by Phocal

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that meets the challenge well

Thank you for your description, as a result I obviously have a huge benefit over the voters! This is seriously abstract, whilst I do like abstracts I usually like to retain some element of reference from which to reconstruct the original, here there is no way and as such I find it more difficult to appreciate and comment constructively. I think I would probably have opted for a crop within what I see here probably a square of the bottom portion of the image where I find the shapes and shades and fuzziness a little more appealing.

Thanks for an intriguing and stimulating entry Ronnie.

Neptune formation
by clara99

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that meets the challenge well

A great idea Clara, the resulting colours and shapes have produced an original and colourful abstract and therefore fulfilled the challenge brief well. The bright vivid colours work well against the darker water background, I like the shape to the upper right with the blue nose it reminds me of Venetian carnival mask looking down.

The only constructive remark I would like to make is that there is some softness top and bottom due to the way the camera was probably held, ie., at an angle to the surface, by holding the camera accurately horizontal to the surface this would have been avoided. I wouldn't say that the softness detracts in any detrimental way so this just meant to be constructive help.

Its great to see your involvement at such a young age and the creativity you have shown here promises very well for the future, I look forward to seeing more from you, thanks for your entry Clara

Celebration!
by sfalice

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that meets the challenge well

You're right Alice, some of the very best abstracts come from water reflections and you have found an excellent one here, well done there is certainly plenty of colour and the bird is well abstracted. I must confess to be a sucker for reflections, I love the reed shapes and the birds head they are beautifully distorted. Perhaps the only thing I would alter is the composition to have more space in front rather than behind but perhaps this was unavoidable for you at the time?

It's disappointing for you that it wasn't better received but thanks for your entry Alice.

Black Ghost Walker
by Phocal

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that contributes well to the free study challenge

Congratulations on your lightning second strike!

It's to our huge benefit that you were on a slow motion kick, I particularly like your shot and this style of shooting, you have achieved a great end result. The symmetry works very well but its all in those glorious reflections they really add the finishing touch to a great concept and execution. There are other alternatives that are going through my mind and I suspect you have all of those amongst your rejects but I think its such a strong subject and potential that any of those would have worked well too. You obviously chose the right one and were well rewarded for it. Well done and thanks for an excellent creation.

Scarlett
by Diamonds

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that contributes well to the free study challenge

What a lovely face, the cheeky smile and those blue eyes, what a charmer she is! It's a lovely image in its own right but inevitably it will mean the most to you and your family and as such will be a treasure to pleasure for a long future. In photographic terms the very soft focus background suggests that it was probably taken at full aperture? She is certainly well isolated from the background and any distracting detail but in terms of the colours they are all in competition in the lower half with fairly similar tones in the top half. This may not be any problem for you but perhaps a different coloured darker background would have in terms of contrast improved it to the extent that we could see her lovely hair too in clearer contrast.

Thank you for your lovely entry Michelle

Attentive Owl
by Drake

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that contributes well to the free study challenge

The eyes have it! That's where the immediate impact of your excellent shot stems from. There is lovely colour and detail throughout your shot, against the mainly soft focus background which whilst not to your best advantage reveals that it has been shot in its natural surroundings. I like the lighting around the head in particular and whilst its not rim lighting it is nearly equally as effective, the top and side of the head are very nicely illuminated.

A lovely entry that has been well received, well done Drake

Siamese Twins red rock formation with Pikes Peak
by Mddoane

Comment:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that contributes well to the free study challenge

It's always essential to try and look for a different view in trying to create an original image and here you have done just that so well done. I don't know if the original scene was as vivid as this but it feels somewhat saturated, I would prefer some desat for a more natural looking result to bring out some of those lovely colours and textures in the rocks.

Wide angle lenses such as you have here are great for creativity, I look forward to seeing more from you soon. Thank you for your entry Michael