macro11.jpg
by icu1965

Comment:
Hey Jess. Thanx for the shooting info on this one. Like that you left the shadow and shape of the mushroom cap. This image is suffering hard from 'low light' noise At 2.8, 320, and 1/15, I reach psychically into your image to see that you are handholding this shot with available light (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that you are.) Give yourself two advantages. 1) Gorilla Tripod ($20-$30) for stability and 2) Tin foil reflector to create a spot light effect and gain that extra bit of light you want right where you want it.

Depending on your software, you can remove most of the 'yellow/red' haze that has appeared here (camera saw gold and thought that the surrounding light areas must equal white). The surface here if shifted to white or grey might help to redefine areas of soft focus in the tack.

The focal point in the low spot in the tack's head is subtle and unexpected. very nice! As a voted challenge entry , DPC members would clobber it. This is however a great practice tool and in a side challenge very worthy of study. Like to see you take this with a full white surface, targeted and reflected white light, and a more head on approach (tack off slightly so we are led into the mushroom cap)from the pointy end, but leaving the focal point exactly where it is now.

blue bell
by Alicia

Comment:
Great job with the desat. Love the Blue. Almost looks silk. Perhaps a shot of neat image on the background to blur it even more and remove the shadow noise, but that's a nitpick. Really liked this series.

desert purple
by Alicia

Comment:
Great shot. Nice DOF, perfect focus and the shadows do not seem murky, they are just right. Great crop to frame the subject and put it on stage. Very nice!

raspberry
by Alicia

Comment:
Wow! Now this is good enough to get me salivating. Despite the 'harsh lighting,' this really conveys the subliminal that any food picture should (assuming you want to actually sell the food) and that is... "C'mon, take a bite!" Love the crop and inclusion of the greens. Was this in a RAW format? Perhaps you could tone the white down slightly on the exposure adjustment? I like it just the way it is. From me an 8-9 in a food/fruit/ad challenge, probably get killed by most for what you already know (light).

Cats and Dogs
by posthumous

Comment:
Very nice! Shamanistic. Great colors and overlap of subjects. Could have been called Peyote. Makes me feel like finding a bear rug and a sweat lodge. Perfect crop and presentation. Abstractly Perfect. (10)

Surfer at last light
by louinsd

Comment:
Slightly impressionistic. Blurry. Hard to judge because the blur leaves a lower contract factor, but would like to see that contrast in this image. Feels like I just surfaced and have water on my face/eyes and here comes some guy about to run me down. Achieves a sense of motion, but the flat lighting fails wow me.
(5)

Mosaics
by faery

Comment:
not a blurry mess. It's blurry, but not very abstract at all. It has impact and emotion. I'm not sure if one is going to hit the other or if they are just emotional about what they are talking about. Nice crop/framing/tilt. High key works very well here. Honorable Mention (7) but can't give you more as there are some fine blurry messes that take higher placement.

bedroom mural.
by kmtregoe

Comment:
It works. It's hippy. Projects an LSD or Woodstock haze. Wish there was a square crop to this, but only if the peace sign was smaller in the crop and there were more colors surrounding the whole. Basically an album cover visual. Overall I like this a lot and give it a (9). May be back though....

The Watcher
by magenmarie

Comment:
Creepy! Just enough blur to feel paranoid. Although this was probably completely candid, it looks like the backpacker is reacting to discovery of the window watcher and may even have been 'freaked out'. Excellent crop and presentation. (10)

The Flowing Forest
by JustinM

Comment:
Excellent! Love the abstract and title. Simple border draws it all together nicely. Great natural/earthy and sky colors. The brown trunkish item seems out of place, but fits with the title.
(10)