Dimensional Rift
by bobnospum

Comment:
Critique Club Review:

Color Saturation and Hue: N/A image is monochrome.

Brightness and contrast: The white highlights are very bright and compete for attention. But the blacks aren't quite all the way black. I would have liked to have seen a real inky velvety black in the darkest areas, and perhaps a few more of them. They would help this image really pop.

Focus and depth of field: Both are very well executed.

A little more black and deeper blacks, as mentioned above, would make this image stand out. As it is, there is a lot of gray here. Which, is not bad. But gray doesn't grab the attention as well.

Other than this relatively minor point, a very well executed image, and a well deserved finish in the top 30.

Maldives Carrier
by SimonS

Comment:
Love the sky! Almost makes me wish the ship wasn't there, so I could see more of it. Nice photo.

Generations
by freakin_hilarious

Comment:
Critique Club Review:

Color Saturation and Hue: N/A, image is monochrome.

Brightness and contrast: Image is well lit. Contrast is good, highlights and shadows both hold good detail.

Focus and depth of field: the plane of focus may be a bit off, or depth of field made deeper. For the current depth of field, the plane of focus is a bit too far back, as evidenced by the softness of the baby's fingers on her right hand.

At first I was unsure as to whether I liked Mom in soft focus. In a way, it seems to diminish her role. But at the same time, it helps say that this is not a snapshot. That being said, it would have helped to comb Mom's hair. That does say snapshot, and the heavy strand of hair, distracts attention away from the subject. If depth of field were shallower, it might soften it enough to overcome. But at f/1.8 I don't think you could get much softer, not matter what lens you used. Perhaps the other answer is to darken the background even more so it is less competitive.

I like the pose. A very peaceful moment for mother and child. The child obviously feels very secure as evidenced by the relaxed position of the hand, and calm look on the face.

Rose clouds before Ribs
by smichener

Comment:
This is a very pretty photo. At the same time, there is just so much here for an image this size. If this were a travel poster taking up a good portion of a wall, it could work much better.

The colors are beautiful, but the picture is very busy and at this scale there is a lot of competition going on.

The stream tries to act as a leading line. But it is broken up a bit upstream by the rocks, and the brilliant colors along the stream side, pull the eye away. When the eye gets to the waterfall, the sky immediately pulls the eye away. It is hard for the eye to rest on a focal point anywhere in this picture. Is it the stream, the waterfall, the clouds that I am supposed to look at? All are competing for a starring role, as opposed to supporting each other.

Again, the picture itself as a whole is beautiful. If the scale were larger, it would surely come across better.

Open Water
by trevytrev

Comment:
Wow, very nice! Comes across as a frozen wonderland. The blue is a particularly pretty shade.

Silently Speaking
by trevytrev

Comment:
Very nice IR photo. The infrared really fits here. Too many times it seems that people use IR as a gimmick. This really helps set the mood for this old place. I agree with your choice. Of the three, the brownish sky fit the best.

its a dog ( shadow puppet)
by bigcheech610

Comment:
Oh, you are probably getting slammed in the voting. But it gets a laugh from me. Grainy, a distracting highlight along the right side, and say isn't that the tip of your finger on the right? Still cute! If I were voting I would have given you a 6 for humor and bravery.

complementary colors
by sunita

Comment:
Critique Club Review:

Color Saturation and Hue: Colors are pleasing, and nicely saturated. Best of all, not over done, as is all too often the case with bright flower pictures. Hues are nice and natural.

Brightness and contrast: Image is bright enough, contrast could be a little higher.

Focus and depth of field: Focus appears a little soft. There does not seem to be a real point of sharp focus. Depth of field may be a bith shallow at this f-stop and a contributor to the effect.

As already noted by others, the small file size has hurt you. Jpeg is a "lossy" compression algorythm, meaning that the more you compress, the more you lose in detail, and artifacts of compression creep in. Check your settings when you save. (I don't have Lightroom) but there should be an option to control file size and quality. You want it as close to 150 K in the open challenges as you can get, to preserve all the detail.

The yellow flower does compete for attention as the subject of the image, so some of the purists may have voted you a bit lower if they felt the flower was the subject rather than the vase.

All in all, a well balanced, peaceful image. I could see it in an office or a magazine. It would also make a nice entry for the current catalog challenge as a picture for a vase on sale.

Against An Angry Sky
by LadyK

Comment:
Nice photo! Maybe a little bright and washed out on the highlights, but still a very strong entry. Nice sharp silhouette. Very nice work indeed.

The Golden Section
by desertsnail

Comment:
Critique Club Review

Color Saturation and Hue: Colors are rich, but not over saturated. Hues are realistic

Brightness and Contrast: Details are held in the highlights, colors are bright and fresh. Shadow under the shell, may be a tiny bit harsh. A little slower fade to black might be welcome to the eye.

Focus and depth of field: Focus is nice and sharp. Depth of field is a little shallow. The soft foreground is not bad, but the shell itself goes soft, from about the 12 to 4 o'clock area along the edge, and a little to the interior. A smaller aperature would fix this easily.

I like the soft blurry clouds of the sky, but the sky is bright enough to compete with the shell a bit. As this is an advanced editing challenge, darkening the sky just a little would be well within the rules.

As is, this is a very good photo and a nice example of nature's math.