Johnnie Said It Would...
by Scoman

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impression

"...bring happiness". Bar. Day off.

Completing the sentence of your title. Definitely at the bar, but it must be a day off because anytime I've ever been to a bar when the sun was still shining (blue light reflecting from window) was on the weekend or vacation.

Looking Deeper

A clever take on the challenge. Humorous, but with a deeper level available for those who want to wade in and reflect.

The photo has a nice balance of subject material with the DOF covering the shot glass, whiskey bottle, and countertop, yet throwing everything else nicely OOF in the background.

The reflections don't distract in a large way for me, although I would like to see how this would have came out using a polarizer. Benefits of losing some reflections would be clearer reading of the label, but not so sure that's important to the story...the bottle says enough. The blue cast, while natural of outdoor light coming indoors, is something I probably would have toned down some by doing a slight desat on the blue channel. Personal preference for sure.

One thing I am surprised at is the smallish size of your entry. The max long side can be 720, you only used 70% of that. Much more impact can be gained with larger image size. Food for thought. :-)

I enjoyed viewing your entry the first time around while voting. It was a pleasure taking another look.

Questions? Please feel free to send me a PM. Thanks!

i gotta itch
by annakiya33

Comment:
You sure she's not trying to hide under her leg to look backwards? Deer can be pretty sneaky at times. :-)

Just kidding.

I considered going after a deer shot with a deer against the tall brown grasses in a local field (usually see numerous deer there at dusk). Went a different direction in the end.

The bare tree branches in the background actually work quite well for this. May be getting some flak for the green with some I imagine. :-/

Nice job of getting good detail and clarity. I was going to say it's a bit centered but which way do you go to correct it? In the end some things just work centered, and this is one of those times. :-)

All JMO of course. Good luck in the challenge.

close encouters of a white on white kind
by cutout

Comment:
This is an interesting image. Thoughtful, creative, edgy...although it does seem a bit busy for this challenge.

Field of Dreams
by anthonyczaja

Comment:
I like how you took this in a natural setting. Much more enjoyable to view than all of the studio setups in this challenge (IMO anyway).

You made a nice choice with aperture for good DOF and clarity. The models pose works well also (bet that rock became uncomfortable!).

Only nit I have is the dark green foliage in the lower left. I would have considered a little tighter crop on the left or cloning this out.

Overall, very well done! Good luck in the challenge.

Dancin' In The Snow
by Drake

Comment:
I really like how the geese are synchronized perfectly. Very cool!

Good luck in the challenge.

The land of the RED DRAGONS......
by FoxyRoxz

Comment:
An adorable expression captured here. I like the composition as well. One thing seems off a little - the skin tone. Looks pale, like maybe some color channel was slightly desat and the skin lost some color in the process?

Just some observations. :-) Good luck in the challenge.

Peanut Butter? Tastes Funny...
by 777STAN

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First Impression

Nasty, gross, YUCK! Then funny. :-)

Looking Deeper

As a parent I connected immediately to the photo and the humor - after I got past the gross part (I guess being a parent helped with that too).

The concept fit the challenge quite well IMO, and I think many of the commenters recognized the connection as well. Could be why roughly 10% of the voters commented, and they scored it 1.5pts above the end average.

So what happened? I think either a number of people didn't get it and voted it low, however I think maybe a larger number were just plain grossed out by it and gave it a low score.

Kind of shows how subject matter can be a factor in how well or poorly an image does in challenges here. I could be wrong (often am). :-)

Outside of subject I don't see that much out of place on technical grounds that would drag the score down on this photo. There's a little bit of glare from the flash (tongue & peanut butter), but barely. The photo does seem just a tad dark, but yet the white of the diapers seem about right exposure wise. Compositionally I think you placed the objects correctly with a nice triangle formed between the hand, diapers, and face. One consideration...the border adds to the dark feel of the image and blends in with the darker areas. A border with a single black pixel, then white, (or vice-versa) would be interesting to try (to see any difference in overall feel).

Hopefully I'm not way off base, and this has been helpful in some manner for you. If you have any questions, or would like clarification, please feel free to send me a PM. Thanks.

Pride Before A Fall
by SteveJ

Comment:
Hi. I really want to say something constructive here... :-)

I can understand the allure of using dominoes as the subject as they fit the B/W theme and can be easily positioned.

What's hurting this is the presentation is very static and there's no sizzle in the POV. The lighting is also quite harsh resulting in heavy shadows. Maybe something from a lower angle, a longer background to work with, and some softer/reflected lighting?

Just some thoughts...and JMO of course. :-) Good luck in the challenge.

Curiosity
by sudhi

Comment:
Nice little touch of color to add some warmth and character to this, yet still showing a B/W image overall for this challenge theme. Clever, creative, and simple. A combination to do well for sure! :-)

Good luck!

Milo
by brownguy

Comment:
Ok, technically this is soft and overexposed in the highlights...but I really like it. :-) It's natural, like how you'd see it in person. Not sure how it would print, but in this format it presents well IMO.

Good luck in the challenge.