Petrified by an alien sea
by Wobble

Comment:
Gives me no sense of "candid" at all. Interesting effects.

Cowboy Cook
by BAMartin

Comment:
Luscious tonalities, rich dark areas. Awkward composition to my eyes, I'd liek to see half as much black behind the figure and more added in the direction to which he's looking. he's trapped by this framing.

Stormy Ride
by photomayhem

Comment:
A very nice image, but it does not fit into the candid category imo.

Last Surfer
by Discraft

Comment:
This doesn't feel "candid" to me; it's more of a scenic or mood shot. I wish the horizon were leveled, though.

I'm Going Slightly Mad
by Tranquil

Comment:
*** CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT ***

This is a beautiful image and well deserves it's high finish in the challenge. The "face" itself is almost startlingly whimiscal and appealing.

Looking at it as a B/W print, I see a lack of detail in the darkest areas that might profitably be fixed, if the information is in the exposure. Speaking in zone system terms, you have a lot of "zone 2" areas that could be raised to "zone 3" (the zone of minimal shadow detail) to the enhancement of the image. this is particularly true where the cover plate falls off into the background in the lower corners and on the right edge a thrid of the way up. A hint of separation of plate from BG would be a plus in these spots.

Otherwise, the tonalities on the plate itself are wonderfully rich and tactile.

From a compositional perspective, I think it's a little TOO balanced top-and-bottom. I'd prefer to see a smifgen removed from the top and added to the bottom, in much the same way that we matte prints with a bit more space below than above.

Great picture, and a pleasure to comment upon.

Robt.

The Face Behind The Voice
by fotodude

Comment:
*** CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENTS ***

This is not really avery interesting photograph, to me, and I think you've acknowledged that yourself in your own comments. The lighting is quite decent, very tactile; that's about the only positive I can come up with.

The cropping is way too tight, especially on the right. Give it a little more room to breathe. It's also very grainy; was this a desired effect or were you shooting in low-fidelity mode? The scallops on the top edge are very odd. Are they actually there, or is this an artefact created by the rendering of the diagonal line at a low resolution?

Robt.

to ugly face for such beautiful sunset!!!!
by simba

Comment:
*** CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT ***

You've already heard about the "flaws" of this image in terms of the challenge; it does not meet the terms of the challenge, inasmuch as even though the face is hidden in this picture it is still an actual face. The challenge was about "finding" faces in things that aren't really faces; tree trunks, reflections, cloud formations, the possibilities were endless.

You've also heard that the white spaces here, and the tiny margins right and left, are very offputting, and I agree.

Speaking of it as an image, it's in many ways quite spectacular. It's a brooding, strong photograph. It's not 100% to my taste, but it seems to me you've probably accomplished what you set out to do. Just out of a sense of exeprimentation, you might try taking this image and reducing the contrast/oversaturation a little bit in the sky, maybe even soften it up a bit, and see how that alters the mood of the thing. There are many, many ways you could handle the post-processing on this image.

Robt.

Less Coffee. More Bailey's.
by swagman

Comment:
*** CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT ***

Rich tonalities are attractive. Composition is a little static to be truly engrossing, split as it is into such a nearly symmetrical opposition of halves. Image suffers from blocking up in the shadows; more care with the lighting would have given richer dark areas and more wow factor. The s-curve upper left is attractive, but I keep wanting to read it as the shoulder of the bottle and it seems at odds with the hilit right shoulder of the same bottle. Falloff of light on the word "Baileys" is a little offputting to me, as is the asymmetrical distortion of the arch of this label.

Robt.

And, Swagman my friend, this was a random draw :-)

I will stop photographing flags!
by samtrundle

Comment:
What is it? Sky, building, and a hue-shifted concrete wall, is what it looks like.

Very nice.

R.

Build a Bookshelf for Homeless Clutter
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Well, it's composed and lit and focused very carefully, so it ain't a snapshot exactly... But it is a "found object" photo, so to speak. And not one I expected to score especially well. But it's a "true" resolution; that's my task for this winter :-)

R.