Summer Evening at Blackfish Creek Marsh
by PenelopeK

Comment:
LOvely finish :-) Congrats, sweetie.

School Bus Drop Off
by jgirl57

Comment:
It's BACKWARDS!

Homework :(
by jcar

Comment:
LOL, since when is "Peanuts Classics" part of "homework"? Jcar's a lucky kid :-)

Chasing Lavender
by Edwardho94

Comment:
Greetings From Critique Club

There are two ways to approach this image critically: as a composition, and based on how you dealt with the HDR requirement of the challenge.

Speaking compositionally, The image is startlingly static considering how much convergence is used, because convergence is usually very dynamic. If you hold your thumb up over the feet, you'll notice the image becomes much more dynamic. Not the image you wanted to make, obviously, but nevertheless a more dynamic one. And in DPC, "dynamic" is worth points. The feet, apparently, anchor the image in a rather mundane way. Which may be your point, of course.

Looking at it as an HDRI image, it's a little awkward. There's a huge disconnect between the rendering of the sky and the rendering of the field, so much that they look like they belong to two different images. And, as a niggling point, the tallest sunflower on the left is showing total shadow, whilst none of the others do, so that's an inconsistency that works against the whole. In general, it's a bit harsh and crunchy of an image.

I did *like* the image, it made me smile, but in the end it finished smack in the middle of the field, which is where I'd have expected it to end up.

CATCH
by MadMan2k

Comment:
Is that a BRA on the floor? LOL...

The Last Day
by MelonMusketeer

Comment:
Wow. THAT'S a cloud formation...

Every Path Led To The Sea
by Cuttooth

Comment:
Hrmmm... Gotta be a cuttooth. So you wanna give the aliens concrete stairs and stainless railings? And aren't they gonna think that's a methane sea or something? Hrmmm... :-)

...in Wildness is the preservation of the world.
by hahn23

Comment:
Seems odd to title it that way, since the premise is that the earth has been obliterated :-( Still, it's a wonderful image, and I'm not dinging for titles anymore... For the record, I gave this an 8...

Message edited by author 2014-09-03 11:25:10.

Long forgotten1
by gmink

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

On the plus side here, the image meets the challenge perfectly. The exposure and focus are accurate, and you've kept the camera squared vertically so the geometry of the framework is not distorted.

Unfortunately, there are a handful of negatives as well: the framing of the shot is awkward (the top of the structure is cut off), the lighting is very bad (too flat), and the post-processing lacks punch. On the framing issue, I realize you probably had to cut off the top to keep things squared up from where you were shooting. The answer would be to zoom out to a wider angle or move the camera back. If this gives too much foreground, then you's crop that.

As far as the lighting goes, this appears to have been shot near high noon, and that's just not working. If you look at the light-colored block lower left, see how it's as bright on the top as on the front? See how the cylinder behind it is totally flat-lit, no modeling? That's hurting you throughout. If the light had been low and to the left or right, it would have been much better. One of the major keys to becoming a "better" photographer is coming to the realization that you are not "photographing subjects", you are "photographing light".

Yes, that's right. Without light, there is no photography. In a very real sense, the "subjects" exist only to reveal the light. So I would recommend cultivating an awareness of light and how it interacts with the environment as a major element in making stronger images.

As far as post processing goes, I don't know what software you use, but to the extent possible just learning to burn and dodge with that software will allow you to darken foregrounds and skies and open up shadow areas where you want to maintain detail, and touches like this make an image carry more visual impact.

Robt.

Purple Butterflies (Self Portrait)
by boocowski

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Before anything else, I gotta say I love your name "Boocowski". It made me think of Charles Bukowski, one of the great Beat poets and a one-time acquaintance of mine. Of course, NOW I realize your name is actually Bukowski... I wonder, are you related? But I digress...

Anyway, there's a lot of quirky, human warmth in this image. It's poignant! It gets me making up stories about you. I like the hint of tattoo. I like that you let the butterflies partly obscure your mouth and an eye. The out-of-kilter shoulder (camera-left shoulder is lower and more sloped) adds vulnerability. Overall, it's a touching image, and nicely done in all the ways that matter on a HUMAN level.

On the DPC level, though, you have some issues. One is that the composition is so very static; DPC tends not to like static, centered compositions. Centered can sometimes be acceptable, but there has to be movement into or out of it. Here, for example, is a recently-ribboning centered composition that draws you in:



Another thing that's hurting you is a pretty sickly-looking background. I realize you used it BECAUSE of the challenge, but it's neither technically nor chromatically appealing. You might have selected all of the wall and blurred it significantly, so there was no texture, and that would have helped. We don't normally recommend blurring things into oblivion, because that means "removing major elements", but in this case there's so little texture TO the wall that it would have been acceptable.

Hope this feedback's been useful to you.

Robt.