Captured
by zetos

Comment:
*Critique Club*

I'm not really sure what to say here. The post processing here looks to be way over the top for my personal tastes, and also makes it hard to look at.
Focus on the flowers looks really soft. Unappealingly so. The background (the ground) looks sharper than your subject. Did you do this on purpose for some reason? Without any photographers comments describing your intent with the photo, I'm not sure if this is what you wanted or not.
There is way more detail in the ground than in the flowers, which makes the ground more interesting in my view than the flowers are.
The color of the photo doesn't really seem to serve a purpose either. Were you just trying out the effect? Was your intent to have the photo blown out and red?
There is definately contrast in the photo, however, I'm not so sure it's high contrast. blowing out one area of the photo, to me, doesn't make it high contrast, unless there are dark areas to contrast it. While your background has some darker areas, there really isn't much DARK Darks. It's kind of a medium dark. If that makes sense.
While the flowers take up most of the photo, the center is really bright and draws a lot of attention there. To me, that is the focal point of the photo. Maybe if it were off centered a bit, that would draw the attention off center, and then our eyes could be drawn TO the flowers. Creating not only an interesting angle, but also some motion as well.
I think this is a worthy idea for the challenge, but really needs something to make it spark.
~Heather~

Fiery contrast
by lentil

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Reminds me of a shot Konador did. I think this qualifies as High Contrast. We got bright brights and dark darks. The lines near the upper left of the flames are a bit of a distraction to me since they are so close to the face and actually go through the face in a couple parts. Was this challenge advanced editing? I can't remember. I would have cloned the lines out of this shot.
Focus is soft, which I'm sure is intended due to the slow shutter speed. I think it works here for what I think you were trying to achieve. Without much details, I'm not really sure if that's your intent, but I assume it was.
This kind of shot really isn't my own personal cup of tea, however, it is neat and does draw attention and also is visually appealing.
Colors are really nice. I like the brightness of the bottom half of the photo with the darkness of the top half.
The face showing through the fire creates interest, but the lines are quite a distraction, that they almost overpower the face in my opinion.
~Heather~

Death
by mystical_princess

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Finally an image that truely looks high contrast to me. Bright whites, dark blacks, I think it works great.
I think the thing that bugs me in this shot is the background. The background area to the right of the photo seems odd. While it does add to the contrast of the photo, it doesn't add to the appeal.
Focus and clarity seem ok, but maybe a tad soft. It might just look that way cause of the harsh lighting, but I feel that the lighting is more important here than the crispness, so I believe you made the right decision there.
I like the placement of the subject within the frame. Having the subject facing the right of the photo with some neg spave in front of it is a good thing. To me though, I wish the negative space had been something other than that bush(?)
Overall a mysterious photo, appealing to look at, but could use a different background in my opinion.
~Heather~

Lily Pad
by Photogirl_in_Vancouver

Comment:
*Critique Club*

The first thing that I notice here is what others have mentioned already is the centered flower. I think this would be better with some dramatic angle or by placing the flower off center a bit. This would create some added interest that might hold the viewer in for a bit longer.
Next thing I see is that while it's a good shot, it's not exactly high contrast either. There is contrast in the photo, but not 'high' by my personal standards. Everyone is different in that aspect, I believe, but this is just my personal opinion.
What happened here, is you took the photo and added the contrast in post processing. I think had you taken the photo with high contrast in mind, and then post processed to ENHANCE your vision, that this might have faired better.
Focus and clarity on the subject seem good and we get some great detail in the flower and lily pads as well.
The upper left area in the water looks odd. It's a distraction. Not sure if it's reflection, or what, but it looks quite odd there at the bottom of that upper left lily pad.
Overall a pleasing image that could benefit from a different crop/angle.
~Heather~

Sail away
by stupot

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Well, if you didn't find the 9 great comments you have already received as helpful, then I'm not sure I'll be able to add anything useful myself, since I tend to agree with all commenters thus far.
The first thing that jumps out to me is the tilted horizon. You have a very strong horizontal line in the background and not only does it cut straight through your main subject, but it's also tilted. What this does, is it makes the photo look like it was not only quickly composed, but also that not a lot of time was spend post processing, which is important, especially on a photo like this.
This photo suffers greatly from noise too. See the grain in the sky? This could be improved by running it through a program intended to reduce noise. Neatimage is one such program and can be downloaded //www.neatimage.com/ there. There is also a program called noiseninja, however I have had no experience with that.
While there is contrast in the photo, I'm not sure I would consider it as HIGH contrast. There really isn't any dark darks in the photo, except for the guys shorts, and that's such a small portion of the photo, that i'm afraid that it doesn't make for high contrast of the bright sail.
Focus seems a bit soft, but this could be due to the high noise in the photo. We don't really get much detail out of the man on the boat or the man in the water, and I find him a bit of a distraction.
A bit of brightness/contrast and some hue/saturation adjustments could help out the colors a bit. Definately wouldn't hurt to try.
~Heather~

Flowers
by LKMote

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Hello Again. What really stands out to me in this shot is the focus and DOF. Very nice focus on the front flowers, fading into a DOF that not only provides something neat in the background, but also helps to prevent anything in the background from being distracting from the subject.
This is definately contrast. I'm thinking it might be on the border of being just contrast and high contrast though. There is enough bright areas in the background, to make the black seem like an afterthought, and the flowers themselves, while being white could definately be brighter to help add to the contrast. So while it's contrast, I think there is possibility to be higher contrast. If that makes sense.
I think someone else mentioned the placement of the flowers within the frame. They are a bit too centered for my taste as well. I'm thinking I'd like to see them maybe just a tad lower into the lower right corner and have a bit more of the background negative space showing toward the upper left area.
I think the black and white works well here.
~Heather~

Special Effects
by Fyzarl

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Hi there. While there is definately contrast in the photo, I'm not really sure I would call this HIGH contrast. To me, HIGH contrast is an extreme on both sites. Your brighter colors are bright, but to me, they aren't quite bright enough. The special effect listed in your title, which I'm assuming is the slow shutter speed and the 'smoke' looking aspect, Is actually dark within the photo. I think it would have been really cool to have that also bright as the sticks themselves.
Focus is good on the blue band laying down, obviously soft on the rest due to the effect used.
I think the effect creates a neat look to the photo. ALmost like spirits or something. That is appealing to look at and placement of the subject sis also ok. The lines in the surface they are sitting on are a bit of a distraction. Would have been nice to see this on a solid reflective surface.
~Heather~

On the way to different ends
by puzzled

Comment:
*Critique Club*

This is a neat looking shot. Definately not something I would see every day. Or ever in my life actually. Don't have bridges like that around here.
There are a couple things bugging me about this. The first has been mentioned, the glow around the lady. It seems that she's an odd color. Not really sure what caused this, so not really sure how to suggest fixing it. Not knowing your editing steps doesn't help either.
Focus and clarity seem really good. Nice crisp lines on the bridge.
The other thing bugging me is the placement of the two vertical beams. They are very close to being in the center of the photo, but slightly off. They aren't off enough to look like you meant for them to be off center, so it kind of looks like it was suposed to be in the center, but you goofed. I would like to see them further off center, thus creating a bit of interest and kind of extra space to one side or the other. Right now, it seems kind of bunched to both sides. If that makes any sense at all.
Love the coloring of the photo. While it definately doesn't look natural, it still looks really neat the way it is.
Overall a great capture of an interesting place.
~Heather~

Lotus Mood
by librodo

Comment:
*Critique Club*

Wow...not really sure what I can add that the 56 comments haven't already mentioned.
Definately high contrast. whites are white and blacks are black. Love the lighting on the background, I think it adds to the shot in my opinion.
The focus seems a tad soft, but with the feeling of the photo, I don't think that hurts this shot at all.
Her face seems blotchy. Not sure if this is editing, or lighting, or what, but seems to have some un uniform tones on her face.
Can't really see much of the flowers except the color part, but they do look good. I think maybe the whites there are a bit too white, but that's just my opinion. I'd like to see more detail in the flowers.
Overall an excellent image and not really much to improve on here.
Congrats on the placing! ~Heather~

Fashion Display
by banmorn

Comment:
*Critique Club*

This definately hit the challenge on the head. Great contrast. Nice darks, nice lights and little in between and it works great.
Focus is right where it needs to be. Nice crisp focus on the subject and we get a lot of detail in the person. I did see one comment though about the thing on the table and I too was thinking that while it does add to the contrast, what the heck is it? I'm willing to accept that it's just an abstract sculpture, and realizing that you didn't put it there, can accept the fact that it's just part of the scene, however, it would have been nice to have something relevant there. Not sure what, but at least something recognisable.
Lighting is really great, I think that's what makes the photo what it is. It's in the perfect spots and creates a nice black background for the contrast theme.
The front of the shirt is just a tad bright on the main subject, but not enough that it affects the photo much at all in my opinion.
The placement of the subjects is great, although again, not something within your control, however, you DID decide where to place them within the frame of the photo, and I think you did a great job there.
~Heather~

Message edited by author 2005-09-14 14:10:05.