Mysted stargazer
by jade fox

Comment:
Wonderful. Would have done well in the soft focus challenge as well.
I definitely like the soft effect, good composition and nice colors.
You know, the lilly bulbs smell even better. I have worked four years in the lilly business. Taking their heads off (the rotting heads have a very distinctive smell), weeding, digging them up, cleaning (the bulbs are washed in a gigantic washer), sorting, peeling (the flakes of a lilly bulb can be grown to create a new one) etc... All stages have their own smell, I can recall them all, they were all good. It was hard work, but satisfying.

Winter Aromas
by adine

Comment:
The scarve and handgloves, plus that cup of chocolate(?) with cookie stand out perfectly against the other darker textile. Good idea and well captured.
Perhaps I would like it even more without the scarve. The purple does not seem to belong here and the handgloves tell enough about the conditions.... Yes, I do believe that a landscape scene of just the lower part of the photo would be even better. 8

eau de toilette
by grigrigirl

Comment:
I like the technical quality of this photo. It is well composed, sharp troughout (wide aperture would probably not help this pose), excellent exposure, good b&w toning.
But I just don't get her pose, too much upper leg area, it makes it look like she has fat upper legs. Perhaps that is true, but I don't consider it very flattering.
Difficult position I guess? :)
Apart from the centre with all that upper leg in it, good photo. 8

Pleasantly fruity with interesting floral overtone
by DBoy

Comment:
The composition is okish, perhaps a slightly lower angle could be better. I like the shallow dof and the capture of the bubbles. I don't like how the glass is cut off by the frame and the black/greyish background (black paper?). Try to get the background behind the glass truly black, perhaps by using a black textile or by using reflectors to light up the front without covering the background.
Colors are great and lifelike. 8

Gold, by Torrente
by willem

Comment:
Great composition with those leaves that come back in the bottle and the waves of scent. Wonderful colors and excellent job on the edgeless background.

I wonder how you got the waves like that, it lookes like streaks of light in a multiple exposure or something like that. Or did you add it by hand during a long exposure? I should comment a lot more, this kind of wondering sparkles a lot of new ideas. :)

Fragranced
by sahko

Comment:
This is add quality if you ask me. :)
It is sexy, it is mystic, this must smell right! :)
Love the lighting of this. Now I have to find some words for the composition, toning and such...... Very Good!

Pipe Smoking
by Yankl

Comment:
Good portrait, nice lighting, like the angle at which you shot this person.
I was thinking about the pose, there is some empty space to the left. On one hand that works good with the direction in which he looks. On the other hand I would like to see that bottom left filled up a bit more. I don't know how one smokes a pipe, but perhaps a higher position of the end of the pipe and the hand supporting it from below (with the inside of the hand / fingers under the pipe) could help.

Anyway, good job.

Burn Out
by arnit

Comment:
Great detail on the cigaret tip, yet a silky smooth smoke with very nice tones= excellent aperture choice.

Good photo.

smells like winter
by ursula

Comment:
Wonderful landscape, it indeed manages to communicate smell by making me remember what a cold winterday smells like. I think that there is nothing that smells better than nature on certain days, especially since it links to certain feelings of joy and other emotions.
There are those days when you step outside, take a deep sniff of air and it smells just like it did 20 years ago, when I was just a little lad. You just know that it is going to be a wonderful day.

Solidarity Against Terrorism !
by fdpiech

Comment:
Original comment: "Err, that pose is not what you'd call anti-terrorism, it's more like "hail that idiot from germany"...
Apart from that, good pic."

Well, that association with the second world war and germany was right, but up to your message about it I didn't catch the meaning of this photo/ propaganda. I think you are right about this issue, to many people do things and believe things blindly as long as leaders name it "xxx against terrorism / anti-terrorism measures" etc. The terms are abused and the abusers seem to get away with it. But for how long? At one point one has to ask what is worse, the terrorism or the counter measures that affect the people who it is supposed to protect.
Well, that's a discussion for the political sites and forums, now that I am writing here again I'd like to say a bit more about the photo too.

I like it how you filled the frame, it puts the figures and their long stretched arms right in your face. The figures/camera are/is positioned at a good angle, it creates depth and avoids a flat looking image.
The lighting is done really well, just as the b&w toning.
I only wonder if the aperture choice was optimal. At one hand I like this version, where there is a slight blur of the second figure. But on the other hand I wonder how it looks if both were in the field of focus. I can image that the scene would become too hard, too sharp and lose some 'emotion'.

Good luck.