DPC_portrait 9-11-15.jpg
by pixieland

Comment:
It has potential for sure. Plusses are a fine expression and some startling facial adornments. Negatives are a busy BG, blown-out wife-beater teeshirt, and an unfortunate cop on the top of the cap. The first two you can deal with in PP, the last depends on the framing of the original. There's also an overalls ense of slight fizziness to the face, possibly just an issue of no pp sharpening having been added.

Robt.

In this sky I feel lost.
by srugolo

Comment:
This image actually scored very well (commenting to your disappointment with the score) when you consider that it has major "high key" elements mixed in with the "high contrast" components. It's like it's two different pictures; a HC eye-and-eyelashes show superimposed on a HK eyebrows-and-face shot. It's a striking image, which is why it placed so well IMO, but it's visually shizophrenic, which might explain the relatively large number of 4 votes.

Summer's End — Sunrise
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Thanks for all the lovely comments. I almost didn't enter this because I knew it would blow my anononymity out of the water, but then I thought "What the hell, it's the best shot you've taken all summer and it fits the challenge, so..."

I wasn't the least surprised at all the comments during voting that pegged this one as being mine :-)

Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
by postoakinversion

Comment:
Congrats on your ribbon, Matt! As i said in my earlier comment, I found this a tad shy on the "HC" side of the equation but loved it as an image. Exceptionally fine shot!

broom vendor
by whiteroom

Comment:
WTG Lesley! This was one of my high scores. I can't believe allt he people saying it's not "high contrast"; I think it works very well both as HC and as an image in its own right. Congrats on your blue!

Ghosts of Winter
by Neil

Comment:
Very strange image. Winter/snow notwithstanding, it gives an impression of "seedpod", like milkweed or something. I quite like it. Very mysterioso...

Delivery & Labor
by skief

Comment:
*** C R I T I Q U E C L U B C O M M E N T ***

Sheesh, I managed to lose my critique when I PM'd you...

****

I remember this image well from the voting. I liekd it then and I liek it now. It operates, of course, under a different set of "rules" than the typical DPC entry, being more documentary than aesthetic in nature. As far as the task you assigned yourself — to document your son's emergence into the world — you have done very well here. The colors seem true (not easy in that lighting), the focus is crisp and clear, and the composition is workmanlike if not spectatcular. Particulalrly pleasing to me is the inclusion of your wife's head (I assume that's her) in the BG.

Had you had the opportunity to be a hair more selective in composing/orchestrating the scene, I'd have liekd to see the forearm/elbow jutting from the nurse's head eliminated, as a mildly distracting element. The bright area upper left might profitably be toned down. You can accomplish this easily in photoshop by roughly selecting the upper left corner as far as the white mask but not including it, then using selective color in the white channel to throw some yellow into that area, giving it a tonality in keeping with the wall. Finally, you might consider slightly dodging the nurse's left arm to bring a little more visual interplay into that area of the image; it could be a stronger compositional element.

Nice job. I'd expected it to score in the 6 range myself.

Delicate & Lovely
by librodo

Comment:
*** C R I T I Q U E C L U B C O M M E N T ****

It seems almost superfluous to be critiquing this wildly popular image, since it's already received so many thoughtful responses, but I'll take a stab at it.

Composition: essentially flawless. The use of negative space, the shape of the negative space, is exceptionally fluid. One might wish for a little more forehead and a little more on the bottom to better-complete the arc of the scarf.

Lighting: appears to be classic window-light. It's one of the most recognizable elements in your images. It's actually a fairly "harsh" light for portraiture, but you always manage to pull it off by careful control of the dark values in the face. I might like to see a hair more detail in the upper left portion of the face, above her right eye, but that's a subtle call. The shadow of the scarf on her chin is mildly distracting; had her raised hand been placed an inch further back, the scarf might not have cast that shadow that interrupts the flow of the line along the chin, but again this is a nit.

Color: I basically have no criticisms of the color except that I am seeing a slight cyan/green cast to the whites of her eyes and wonder if you might neutralize this?

Other: IMO, and I see by the comments that I'm not alone in this opinion, this shot shows overuse of neat image. I understand the smooth, graceful, flowing effect you are after here, but I think you can ramp down a bit on the neat image and still have that effect. Indeed, this is my only real criticism of the image; I believe the skin, especially on the hand, is overly plastic-looking.

Wonderful shot, Manny. The bottom line is that this person really comes through as "delicate and lovely", which after all is what you set out to accomplish.

Robt.

Nightlight
by RulerZigzag

Comment:
That's one fine shot, man. Rotation seems fine to me. The implied vertical dead-center is spot-on. You absolutely MUST clone green onto those white leaves, and perhaps mute the brighter greens a little bit as well.

Beautiful capture.

Connected v.1
by just-married

Comment:
That's exceptionally nice. Two things that strike me favorably are the silhouette-that's-not-a-silhouette (perfectly exposed/processed) and the very odd fact that the lighting makes it look like the girl is IN the tank, underwater, and the turtle is OUT of the tank, floating in space.

The thing I'd change (very minor nit) is to crop just a tad off top and left to get rid of that tiny anomaly of the right rear flupper behind the shell int he upper left corner.