May 2003 Lunar Eclipse
by strangeghost

Comment:
Did you give any thought to using mirror images to give a ramp down and then up for the progression? Perhaps going down from top left to bottom left at full, then heading from full to a sliver at bottom right, then progressing up to top right at full and heading left back to nothing on the left.

Sorry if that sounds confusing. It would create a square crop image with full moons at the bottom left and top right corners, and near black in the bottom right and top left corners. If it wasn't two hours past me 'bedtime', I'd probably have a stab at it.

Looks fantastic btw!

Hill Sheep
by MudHut

Comment:
came back to fave.

Despair
by Artyste

Comment:
Someone get this boy an oobie!

Damn, this is awesome. beautiful use of muted coloring.

I noticed that the image itself is quite small (58KB). This shows itself in two ways. One I dislike, but is irrelevant (jaggies on the hand) and one I do like. I notice that there is some JPG artifacting around the soft gradients in the contours of the face in the OOF area.

It's like a series of steps. It really gives the background some very subtle feeling of depth, and really does draw you in (like the other comment).

Probably my favorite pic from your collection.

Adagio
by MAK

Comment:
That is gorgeous.

lighting is just a couple nanometers shy of perfect, but I'll put that down to the fact that your model doesn't speak your language and wasn't being fed M&M's with the green ones removed (I've heard that some models can be VERY finnicky).

A seriously memorable shot I'd say. something I've never seen in the wild... or the park.

IMG_0074 copy3.jpg
by christie3

Comment:
very interesting colors, the eyes draw you right in.

Laughter
by lovethelight

Comment:
fantastic image. Love the soft focus look. I would love to know more about this 'diffuse glow' filter.

Definitely a memorable pic for anyone involved.

The Tenacious Weed
by lovethelight

Comment:
love the line created by DOF

I also like the muddiness in the bokeh in the top left.

stunning shot.

Lips
by lovethelight

Comment:
Interesting. I see the basil leaves as a minimalistic approach to drawing attention to the rest of the pic. True, the pattern is quite random, I believe that this is perfect for the pic. It signifies that the pic is not about the basil and encourages you to look past. And when you do look past, you see that the picture is about shapes and contours, softness and flow. Really delightful.

One of the best shots I've seen in a long time.

I'd probably like to see a bit less color in the pic, but that's a side-issue. I think this might be worthy of a few different color treatments to see where it went.... A hue-shift to turquoise/cyan tones might be fun too.

The Place Where Romance Starts
by william88

Comment:
Probably one of the more exciting double fister's on this site.

Very glad to see how well each image did, even in spite of their similarities.

Sometimes I feel conflicted about images and their suitability for one thing or another... What a great way to do things by submitting to the Free study as well.

Imagine how embarrassed the vote knockers would have been if this had been taken by another photog who was with you that evening (such scenarios have occurred in the past). This alone ought to give anyone who voted down some pause.

My Personal Triumph!! A hummingbird shot with my macro lens!
by Spizzer

Comment:
ouch on that DQ, but seriously, this image is so good, I don't think even a DQ can do much to tarnish it. Truly outstanding in every respect.

The post processing is a stellar example of balance, with great sharpness and contrast with nothing overdone. I hope other submitters take this as an example of how to do it right. Would have pulled a 10 from me in voting.