On the Cutting Edge
by karmat

Comment:
or "who cut the cheese"

Can of worms
by kiwiness

Comment:
oh gross - do I REALLY have to give a ten to this - guess so- ugh

My Window
by Emeraulde

Comment:
hello from the critique club-

What a gorgeous sunset!! It looks like a storm is just passing and the skys have just cleared.

I like how you have framed the sunset with the silouetted trees. It gives the image depth. and I love those lower dowm clouds dipping into the trees - more depth. I like how you have created some tension/contrast with the horizontal lines of the clouds and the vertical shapes of the trees. Also weight, you have defined a sense of weight - the clouds are soft, without sharp outlines and bright, ie light. The earth is dark, has sharp shapes and is at the bottom of the frame - ie heavy.

Since the challenge is eternity I suppose the viewer could bring his own set of ideas about religion or about life/death or about confinement/freedom. Your picture gives us something to think about.

As for ways to improve it...perhaps if the silouette was more interesting in itself it would have an equal draw to the sky and pull the viewers eyes back and forth from one to the other. Like what? I don't know. a church spire, a large bird, a playground structure? I know that would change the purpose from "my window" to something all altogether. Also the tree on the right is a bit blobby and too dominant.

If you want a better score you need to figure out how to post a larger image. On my screen, yours is about four and a half inches, whereas the winners are a full seven inches. Remember that 640 pixels is the largest size allowed and it is a good idea to take advantage of it. Yours is only 420 x 285. A larger image is easier to see, details get lost in a thumbnail.

Is the image tilted ever so slightly? It feels like it dips to the left. Even if this is the way the scene actually was, it might help to rotate like one degree clockwise and see if it looks more natural.

Sunsets are considered and "over done" subject. Most DPC voters have scored dozens and dozens. Sometimes I think a sunset image doesn't get the attention or score it deserves as an individual photograph because it carries the baggage of all the other sunset shots. Yours scored very well and you should be proud of both the picture and it's score.

Please remember that this is just the opinion of one person who is far from expert.
PS. I like your soccer mom picture the best!

Message edited by author 2003-11-18 11:28:39.

Windmill at sunset
by Azrifel

Comment:
Beautiful!!

Worship comes from the heart... Church building is optional!
by smellyfish1002

Comment:
This study of light and shodow is so well done that it seems a shame you put it on a wood grain background. The wood is distracting, the wrong color and, in particular, obscures the shape of the cross on the curch. If you had shot this on a plain backbround I'm sure it would have placed in the top 20. Worth reshooting for your personal portfolio! giving a 6, wishing I could have given a 9 or 10.

Circle of Family
by WILDBLUE

Comment:
Photographs of other peoples arrt tend not to score well. You have added your own creative stamp to this sculpture though. It bothers me that it feels slightly tilted. Also it is slightly ff center, not enough off center to make it seem like you deliberately place it to the side to make use of negative space. Such a slight placement looks like a mistake. try moving the figures over even more.

Sacred Grounds
by heida

Comment:
On my monitor this image is very dark. Photos that are intended to be dark, for mood for example) do not score well because of the wide variety in monitor calibrations amoung voters. If it looks dark to you, you can be sure that it will look even darker to many others. If you want a better score, stick to a safer brightness. If you love the image dark, be satisfied with it and ignore the score. Try looking at this on several different monitors to be sure that it looks the way it did on yours. Have you recalibrated your monitor recently?

Church Window
by Nukkta

Comment:
Many people, myself included, feel that to simply take a photo of someone elses art without putting your own creative stamp on it is akin to cheating. Perhaps you have selected this area from a larger window pane and perhaps it was challenging to get the correct exposure but that does not show in what your present. There is not much here to make this image yours. Perhaps a differnent angle?

Still Waters
by amsmyth

Comment:
A perfect ten! This is abolutley gorgeoues. Maybe I love it because this is exactly the kind of place I would call sacred. These colors are the colors I grew up with. The water is so still and the reflection so perfect. A recent thread asked "when is it effective to break the rule of thirds?" This is a perfect example of when. When the symetry of an image is so powerful that it belongs dead center. But then you have the little house and the little reflected green tree in the thirds positions, balancing each other and creating a cross diagonal to counter the diagonal crack in the rock. Perfect emotion, perfect moment, perfect composition, perfect technical execution. perfect (did I say that already?)

Molecules
by OneSweetSin

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club-

Do you love this photo? For me is is a "not quite" picture. Technically it is not quite perfect. Compositionally it is not quite interesting. It meets the challenge, but not in a compelling way.

As your other commenters mentioned, the biggest technical flaw is the lighting. While it is viually nice that the top is light and the bottom is darker, giving some weight to the macro and emphasizing the round shape, the over exposed top is distracting. To my eye the exact center of the image is slightly less focused than the edges, is it my imagination? I like the color, the texture is great.

Your composition is straight-on-in-the-center. This approach is the most common but not always the most effective. It is a static, rather than dynamic composition. Even with a macro that fills the field a different arrangement might have been more effective. What if the closest point had been moved slightly off center to the left? Since we "read" a photo left to right, the molecules on one side would appear closer and larger, tapering off slightly to to right would lead the viewer that way and enhance the sense of infinity. I tried simply rotating the photo 90° clockwise and it creates a feeling of movement left to right, dark to light that is not present in the original orientation. Cropping in closer to cut out both the blown out area and the dark blemish that really attracts the eye might be explored.

My advice? Take some risks. Clearly (looking at your impressive portfolio) you have mastered your camera and are comfortable with the technical aspects of photography. Now explore how composition can improve a picture. Luckily the challenge is over and you can use your editing program to burn in the over exposed areas and add the fixed up image to your portfolio.

Please remember that these comments only represent one (far from expert) opinion.

Message edited by author 2003-11-16 10:07:41.