Boy
by kashi

Comment:
5.6 gets only a brief comment...

Nice use of negative space and has a good feel to it. The biggest problem is the low key is accomplished by what appears to be greatly reduced contrast. You will see the best Low Key shots actually had some true whites in the image. Most successful ones also converted to B&W.

Stoic Resignation
by fotomann_forever

Comment:
The Technicals: Focus, contrast and lighting are well done. I do like the fog machine effect. (I need to get one)

The feel: I wonder if you could have emphasized the contours and textures of the bear more with a B&W conversion instead of color.

The game: The reality is that photos of figurines or statues rarely do well. Had you used a model with the same setup and same composition, I'm sure it would have scored at least a half point higher if not more.

DNA
by yanko

Comment:
yaaa for Richard!

Troubled Waters
by Arancha

Comment:
very nice. I'm a big fan of shots like this

Little Boy's Love
by HeiSch

Comment:
The technicals: I like the composition. The contrast is a bit flat, which is probably a result of the highlight which kept your from pushing the rest of the picture. Focus is reasonable, although the image is somewhat soft.

The feel: To tell you the truth, my first impression was that he was just resting his head against the ball against a wall out of boredom and not love. I think it's the blank look in his eyes. This is probably part of what lets the shot down.

The game: This is the type of picture which probably means more to you than to the general audience. They don't know your son's love of the game and so forth. There is more to the picture that you see, but others do not.

Sunday Night Main Street
by ltlmschrisss

Comment:
The technicals: Focus and sharpness is good. I gotta assume you did this with a tripod or I'd be really impressed. We lose a lot of things in the night sky. The worst is the edge of the awning. Even on maximum brightness, I lose it on my laptop.

The feel: Here is my take on street photography: Street photography should do one of a few things: 1) capture the human condition either through an interesting scene or through the facial expressions captured in an everyday occurance. 2) capture nostalgia 3) capture an interesting geometric pattern (meaning the photo has abstract qualitites) which rises above the photo as a whole. Your shot doesn't do 1. Night can lead to a nostalgic feel, and there's a small bit of that here, but not a ton. I like your pointing out the sun/night and ice/ice cream connections, but that's pretty subtle for a DPC challenge.

The game: B&W ruled this challenge. You may have gained a small amount just by going with that. Otherwise, the shot loses out on being subtle (if the purpose was the sun/night and ice/ice cream connections you mentioned).

Walking to Nowhere
by Ubersteiny

Comment:
The technicals: I think your PP lets this shot down. Why the gaussian blur? If it was an attempt at noise reduction, I think you went overboard. If it was an attempt at an "effect", I think it hurt the shot. As far as other aspects, your GF's coat gets lost somewhat in the street.

The feel: Street photography should do one of a few things: 1) capture the human condition either through an interesting scene or through the facial expressions captured in an everyday occurance. 2) capture nostalgia 3) capture an interesting geometric pattern (meaning the photo has abstract qualitites) which rises above the photo as a whole. I'm not sure your shot does any of these too well. I did not see this one in voting, but I would have sensed "set up" immediately. That's not good for this challenge. The subject's face is also too small for us to get a feel about.

The game: B&W was a good choice for this challenge. Setting up the shot wasn't.

Street Cafe Eavesdropping
by Greetmir

Comment:
The technicals: Well done. The lighting works and I like the motion blur of her hand. Colors are subtle (see the game).

The feel: Here's my take on Street Photography (opinion only): Street photography should do one of a few things: 1) capture the human condition either through an interesting scene or through the facial expressions captured in an everyday occurance. 2) capture nostalgia 3) capture an interesting geometric pattern (meaning the photo has abstract qualitites) which rises above the photo as a whole. Your shot is at attempt at 1. It does a good job of capturing faces in a size and lighting that allows us to explore them.

The game: Two things. 1) B&W ruled supreme in this challenge. I think choosing color meant an uphill battle. 2) Applying such a bold filter effect is pretty gutsy on DPC. People love to hate that stuff. I sorta like it here, but I can also see how it detracts. I bet you would have scored higher (if you are interested in score) with a B&W application and no art filter.

Precious
by faery

Comment:
The technicals: Sharp focus, good lighting, nice colors, nice DOF. This shot is not let down by the technicals.

The feel: Here is my opinion on street photography. Street photography should do one of a few things: 1) capture the human condition either through an interesting scene or through the facial expressions captured in an everyday occurance. 2) capture nostalgia 3) capture an interesting geometric pattern (meaning the photo has abstract qualitites) which rises above the photo as a whole. Your shot captures 1 quite well. Not only do we capture the innocence of youth, it is contrasted with the basic apathy and dejection of the man behind her.

The game: I gave this shot a 6. I think I would have scored much higher if you did not choose a selective desat approach. I do like selective desat, but I don't like it in this shot. I know what you were doing and what you were going for, but I just don't like it. Maybe it's some preconceived bias that street photography should be B&W (you did see that 9 of the Top 10 were B&W right?). After spending some time looking at this shot, I like it quite a bit.

EDIT: I do not read other comments before I leave mine, but after reading routerguy's comment, I can see what he was talking about with motion blur, primarily in her hair. I don't think it's a biggie, but I agree it's there.

Message edited by author 2007-03-01 12:57:38.

Hip shot
by krafty1

Comment:
The technicals: Perhaps one of the limiting factors of this shot is that you were shooting in bright sunlight toward the sun (well, not directly toward, you can see the sun is on the left). This darkens all three of our subjects which hurts the shot. Focus is good. Sharpness is a bit soft, but not a big deal.

The feel: OK, so this is my take on street photography. (My opinion only.) Street photography should do one of a few things: 1) capture the human condition either through an interesting scene or through the facial expressions captured in an everyday occurance. 2) capture nostalgia 3) capture an interesting geometric pattern (meaning the photo has abstract qualitites) which rises above the photo as a whole. Your shot is an attempt at 1. We have faces in the shot which is a good start, but the shadowing which I mentioned before along with their relatively small size keeps us from really "feeling" any of them.

The game: There is a point where the 640 pixel size of the canvas actually changes how you would compose a shot. Because of our limited canvas, I may have tried to crop closer to allow the faces to be physically larger. This may not be necessary at all in an 8x10 print. I think ultimately it was the dark subjects which hurt you the most.