Finding One's Path
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
Now - I like the Banksy in the background: a valuable bit of art! Instantly recognisable (though am not sure where this particular one is located).

As for the picture: I like the motion and composition. I am having a tough time finding any pictures that stand by themselves - the decision element in most is imported purely by the title. Am having that difficulty here.

Look Both Ways!
by The Eskimo

Comment:
heavily over sharpened - bad haloing.

And very hard to see how the photo meets the challenge.

Fatel Decision !
by richabhatia

Comment:
insurance fraud is no way to try and fund the purchase of a Canon... ;)

nice picture, but I am really struggling with most of the pictures in this challenge, as almost all require the words "decision to [x]". This photo is pretty reliant on the title to make it a "decision" (though not as bad as some).

The photo of the Nikon expoloding with the full impat would have made it more interesting! As it is, the hammer appears to have a bit of motion blur, but not enough to carry this off convincingly. I wonder if you could have used a long exposure and flashed the scene 2 or 3 times with the hammer moving, to get a good motion blur?

Which green should I use??...Decisions! Decisions!
by debbybris

Comment:
Nice idea, but first decision should have been to use cleaner pencils...!

A Salty Breeze
by J_Ehrat

Comment:
Congratulations on an excellent first entry - I look forward to seeing more from you.

Matthew

Crisp and Simple
by AlexMonty

Comment:
I liked this - amazing detail on the apple skin. Thought it deserved more than this!

Distinctly Iris
by glad2badad

Comment:
I like this photo, but it is competing in a particularly strong field, and does not have the necessarty "wow" factor to avoid the middle ground. The middle ground for this challenge was a bit lower than usual, I think, because there are quite a lot of "wow" shots.

I would criticise the photo as follows. the gradation of colour in the background travels from yellow to blue, but the blue is not a strong blue: there is still a strong yellow cast. I might strengthen the blues in the top half of the image using colour balance controls, and possibly curves in certain channels.

The clouds are very subtle. I might have experimented with a polarising filter to punch out the whites in the cloud from the blue. As it is, the clouds are sufferring from the same yellow haze/colour cast.

Uniformity of the flowers is impressive - they are well matched and cast an interesting silhouette (if not immediately obvious as flowers). Drama might have been added if you could have caught a hihglight line tracing around the flowers to emphasise their shape and nature: possibly hard or impossible with this type of flower, but easier with flowers that have fluff on their leaves or petals (ie change of fauna being photographed - impractical to find different flowers on this timescale etc. I am sure, but availability/choice of subject will affect scoring dramatically).

Underground
by fredandaud

Comment:
You must obtain the permission of the station supervisor before taking any photos of the underground... how often has that tap on my shoulder ruined a good long exposure.

Very nice image. I like the slightly unfocussed and grainy quality - a real black & white feel to this. It feels as though the image is spiralling. 9.

Dove on Roof
by Zed Pobre

Comment:
Good capture - classic rooftop shot. Very slight lack of detail in the area around the chest and RHS of bird - very slight jaggies, plus very slight halo makes me wonder if a fraction less sharpening might improve. I might also have made the blue of the sky a little more intense, to capture the contrast with the orange light on the bird's chest. Central composition is fine, but I would experiment with variations on the third lines, and if printing large, with a "minimalist" style shot of this bird and a nice big, plain sky above and a wider crop..

Tree and Lights in Fog (2)
by Zed Pobre

Comment:
This is an interesting photo, that I might have taken with quite a bit of underexposure to retain more detail. While I like the idea of glare through tree tops, there is perhaps a little more than I would choose in this photo. I would have experimented with a smaller aperture and longer exposure (still retaining underexposure), which , I think, would retain detail in the darker elements and possibly the light sources. This would give greater flexibility for post processing.

On this screen (admittedly lacking a little in brightness - but cranked up to the max), the top of the photo has lost too much detail to be interesting (faded to black) - though that could be my monitor. Curves in PS might be used to increase the contrast in that part of the spectrum.