The Puppeteer
by Mark

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Sorry for the late critique, I drew a few critiques, somehow didn't get to critique them, and just realized they were not done, so here goes.
Not really much to say here. Excellent color!! nice crisp lines, focus appears dead on. The strings look a bit jaggy, but I think that's just the texture of the strings. There's a small area in the bottom right corner that is lacking the crisp focus of the rest of the photo, and looking at the photo as a whole, it doesn't affect the photo much in the way of how appealing it is, however, sitting here staring at the image, it does become a bit noticable and somewhat of a distraction.
Nicely done silhouette. I only see one small spot of the lower wrist that was not totally emerged in blackness. Overall a very tiny nit picky detail however.
Placement of the subject is great, I see nothing that needs improving upon.
This is an excellent image, and your score and placing reflect that nicely. Wish I had more to add, but consider that a great compliment.
~Heather~

Message edited by author 2005-11-13 23:44:55.

The Fence on top of the World
by metaphox

Comment:
*Critique Club*

While it is an interesting photo, like you, I'm not sure if it really screams interesting perspective. Obviously, everything is a perspective, but what i was looking for in this challenge is a perspective that added something to the subject.
The fence is barely visible in ths shot. maybe if you had a flashlight and long exposure you could have painted it by hand. That could have definately been interesting.
The colors are neat. I like the red/blue of the sky.
The lights of the city really don't add much to the photo. They seem to be too bright, or too blurry to really matter much.
So, while you have a neat sky, there's too much of a lack of detail in the city and not enough light on the fence to really work for me.
There's really no where around here where a person can go to overlook a city, so definatly not something I see every day. I'd trek up there often on good nights to experiment with different things.
~Heather~

Nature face
by cfoo

Comment:
*Critique CLub*

First thing I notice about this shot is the lighting. There are a lot of blown out areas on the tree creating white spots and in turn deleting a lot of detail that we could be enjoying. One spot over to the left actually blends in with the background creating no division between the background and the subject.
Interesting face that I see over to the right.
There is definately perspective in the shot, but I am not so sure that the perspective chosen actually helps the shot or improves the shot in any way.
focus seems soft on most areas of the tree as well. See how there aren't any real crisp details. There's a lot of potential for detail in this photo, the moss, the bark, the face, but it all seems to run in together.
I think maybe taking this photo at a different time of the day might help improve the lighting so that the sun isn't directly on that area of the tree.
The background is ok except for the hot spots, and the one area that blends in with the tree, there is nice seperation between the tree and the background.
~Heather~

Ozymandias
by trtfeasor

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Without your photographer's comments, I would not know what this was.
As for the relationship to the challenge, I am also not sure how you have used a perspective to enhance the subject. By your horizon line, your subject was shot almost straight on. The photo isn't tilted enough to add any dramatic angle in my opinion, so the tilted horizon comes off as just a mistake.
the colors are dull and lacking something to really make it punch. The sky is just flat and also does not compliment the subject well.
I think your focus is soft, but ok enough that we can still see some detail in the subject, for example the little plant growing on top of it to the left.
Lighting to me just seems flat. Looks like it was just that kind of a day outside.
Overall the image doesn't scream 'cool perspective' to me, the subject is interesting, but not enough to hold my attention long, and the colors need a boost. Maybe some saturation of the blues would work? Something to play around with anyway.
~Heather~

A perspective
by Antonino

Comment:
*Critique Club*

I think this would be appealing as well with an even more diagonal perspective. As I look at the photo right now, I don't look at it and say 'wow...great perspective'. I look at it and say great patterns, nice repetition etc. I think that angling it even more diagonally would add some extra oomph.
Great focus and clarity. really nice crisp lines in the windows.
The background is nice, no distractions there. I like how it's almost solid, but not quite.
Black and white is neat, would like to see more whites in the photo though, seems a bit grey to me.
Overall a neat photo, definately not something I'd see every day, and appealing to look at.
~Heather~

Now This is a Knife
by paul58

Comment:
*Critique Club*

I have pondered over this image for a couple days now, and I am still stuck on the opinion that it doesn't look like a real image. The knife looks digitally altered or something. Not sure if it's the lighting or non reflection or what that makes it look this way, but it looks flat and fake.
I think it's the band of grey at the top near the tip of the knife, and the flat surface of the knife that make it look this way.
Your intentions were to keep reflection off the knife, and for that, I think you did a good job. But maybe too good, cause it just doesn't look natural.
I like the positioning of the knife and the angle at which you chose to shoot it at.
Focus and clarity are good, sharp where it needs to be.
I can't decide also if I like the tiny area of purple up in the upper right corner either. Seems like a distraction, however, had that area not been lighter, the handle would not be as visible.
Overall, it's a neat clean image, just doesn't look natural.
~Heather~

Ronin
by Nazgul

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Well, what to say. I really dont think I can add anything to this that the other 74 commenters haven't already said.
The only real negatives I see are the odd glow around the outside of the man, Which is mostly visible in the dark areas of the background, and the jaggies around the hat.
Really, other than those 2 small details, This is a perfect photo. Fits the challenge perfectly and great focus and clarity. Excellent lighting, love the mood of the photo...not much to add.
~Heather~

Just Orange...
by jellyoooo

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Focus seems a bit soft. I would like to see a more sharp focus on the eyes and face. Oddly enough, the focus seems right now to be sitting on the hat. Very nice detail in the hat, and I wish that detail was in the face as well. I like the texture of the hat, but having it in focus, when the face is not, is distracting from the face, which should really be the focal point of a portrait. Does that make sense?
I like the orange clothes and hat, I think it makes nice contrast against the small portion of background that we can see, however, something is making her face look orange too. don't know if it's color balance, did you up the saturation? Having no photographers details submitted, it's difficult to know what you did, why you did it, and what you were trying to achieve. I can only offer my personal opinion that I think I would have toned down her skin as to not give it such an orange look. This is advanced editing challenge and you could have used layers to bring out the oranges in her clothes, and give her a more natural color to her skin.
Lighting appears ok, although I wish her eyes were lit a bit more. They are quite dark and don't even have reflection or catchlight or anything. I would prefer to see some sparkle in her eyes. Maybe even just a fill flash (not harsh) or lamp in front of her at a distance would have helped.
~Heather~

Climbing the sky ...
by Prophecy

Comment:
*Critique Club*

It is definately an interesting perspective. This could have worked for the 'perspective' challenge as well as the new 'from the ground up' challenge.
The shape of the tree is interesting, and the sky really compliments the tree very well.
There are 2 things I notice about the shot that for me, would have been better with some improvements.
First is the focus. Seems generally soft on the tree trunk, branches and leaves. I wish that the focus were more crisp in those areas.
Second is the lighting, while it seems to have been a beautiful day for taking pics, This side of the tree is a bit dark. With the soft focus and darkness, we don't really get much detail in the trunk at all, which is the part that's really 'in your face'. Up toward where the branches start at the curve, it's really dark and really soft focus and it kind of jumbles together into a busy area.
I like how you placed the image within the frame of the photo. Really nice subject placement, interesting subject, just wish we could get more detail out of it.
Otherwise, great shot for the challenge.
~Heather~

Message edited by author 2005-09-22 13:46:55.

Branch ... By Definition
by rwouthuis

Comment:
*Critique Club*

I think what I really like about this photo is that our eyes are drawn straight to the words, even though they are not in the center of the photo. The glasses draw our eyes right to where they need to be. Excellent placement of the subject. The glasses only being part way in the photo also works for me beacuse if the other lens had been in the photo, then we'd be looking through that one and not the one we need to be looking through. if that makes any sense.
Focus is excellent throughout the photo. I see a couple comments suggesting that the non branch part of the book be out of focus, but I don't think that's needed with the way you set up the image.
Lighting is good. I like the shadows from the glasses. Nothing distracting there.
~Heather~

Message edited by author 2005-09-22 02:53:30.