Trick-or-Treat ( Inspired by Artoole)
by Jaded_Housewife

Comment:
is that a needle on the right? hard to see that one. Cute idea. Maybe a bit too much negative space. 6

Step On A Crack, Break Your Mother's Back
by rubienne

Comment:
I like it. nicely shot and set up. The lighting and textures are nice. 8

Pie In The Sky
by LERtastic

Comment:
hmmm, that streetlight doesn't help, but whatcha gonna do? it really is an eyesore though. The sillouetting of the subject is tough with this pose. It makes it hard to know exactly what's going on.

"There's Gold Up in Dem Hills"
by Cutter

Comment:
Nice composition and I like the lighting of the lower rocks which really does make them look golden. The water may be a touch too blurred. 7

Black Cats Aren't Bad Luck...REALLY!
by psquared40

Comment:
The flash makes the lighting harsh on this one. The red bottle to the side makes for a bit of a "snapshot" feel to it. 5

Dark Voodoo: A Broken Heart
by cutlassdude70

Comment:
I like this one. Maybe a touch more DOF? not the end of the world though. 8

seven years bad luck
by annah

Comment:
Composition and colors are nice. Good choice of subject (although lots are doing it). Creative with the posing. 7

A Spot of Calm
by electina

Comment:
Hmm, I'm a bit puzzled on this one. 4.99? I'd likely have given it a 6. I think the composition is nice and the bokeh is quite nice here. Umm, well, it was a flower. That probably made the score a bit lower. The flower is just a bit blown, that doesn't help. While I think the background is properly exposed, the greens of the subject are a bit underexposed. So it looks like tough lighting. You could probably have changed things in PS a bit, but you are limited in basic editing.

The Calm in the Chaos
by troberge

Comment:
Wasn't it quite zen that a picture like this scores a perfect 5.000?

I think this may have been a victim of "bad" bokeh, or at least "no" bokeh. Yes, the background is blurred and so it isn't really a DNMC thing in my mind (but it looks like there were a number of people who thought so seeing the # of 2 and 3 votes). BUT, the background doesn't "enhance" the shot too much. The tree portion is sorta distracting and the rest is just sorta there.

The focus and composition are nice. Maybe it's just a tad overexposed (evidenced by the chimes or the lower piece of wood).

Red
by dahved

Comment:
Really I think above 5.5 most shots show a basic grasp of all the techincals needed for a good picture. Then it becomes a matter of subject, "wow" and the small details that raise it above.

I have always found reds to be very hard to control on the Canon sensor. They saturate very very quickly and can look bad. I took a bunch of tulip shots in April and had the exact same problem. This shot may be suffering from that a bit. Try actually desaturating the reds a small amount and see if it looks better. (we rarely think of desaturating things unless we are going for selective desat or B&W).

The bokeh is mainly nice, but I think the lawn section is blown a bit which makes it less appealing. I also don't quite like the two horizontal highlights. Because it makes a pattern, our eyes are drawn to it and away from the subject. It doesn't add to the picture informationally, so it just winds up being a distraction.