The Shipwreck Coast
by Tim

Comment:
Congrats on your first Top 5! I love slow shutter speed water on rocks! This one is well done.

Just Another Tequila Sunrise
by thegrandwazoo

Comment:
heh, glad you did alright with this waz. I ain't the be all end all...

One year later - "Why is daddy still gone?"
by timfythetoo

Comment:
I'll only briefly comment as I know you know what you are doing and a 5.8 isn't a bad score. BTW, take a look at my image grain entry. Great minds must think alike.

The first beef, and it's small, is that I have no idea what he's holding in his hand. It's even worse because it's smack dab in the center of the picture and we puzzle over the object more than we take in the desolation of the picture.

I also don't quite like the way the word doesn't make sense. "apham"? We also puzzle about what name ends with "apham".

Those are small though. Just off the top of my head.

Tattered Glory
by scarbrd

Comment:
ya, another entrant learns the risk taken in entering the American flag. I'm sure at least a few of the 1-3 scores were purely for that reason.

That being said, you took a number of other risks as well. Film grain. Centered composition. Selective desat. Abstract interpretation of the challenge. Basically this shot was a DPC minefield. And you STILL scored a 5.51. So I'd take the 5.5 as a man who walks away after being thrown 50 feet after crashing his motorcycle...

desolation of character
by tate

Comment:
Ya, that title is a tough one. But more importantly, the shadows are placed just wrong. I like them as part of the composition, but they fall across the man's torso and head in just the right way that it isn't obvious there is a person under there. The confusion to the eye makes for a less appealing picture. If this was posed, I would have reposed, if it wasn't, well, then you are screwed.

Nice composition otherwise. Nice focus, nice B&W conversion.

Beaten Path
by justin_hewlett

Comment:
Composition, focus and PP are nicely done. The lighting is really tough and it would have been nearly impossible not to have areas of blown highlight outside the path.

I could quickly tell this would be at the top of my 4.5-5.5 scale. I think the biggest issue simple pertains to what enough people considered "desolate". Perhaps the "nice warmth" you added with the duotone worked against you in this regard. I don't think it was a biggie though, but I'm not looking for "nice" in desolate...

And You're So Far Away From Me
by Rebecca

Comment:
Desolation was a tricky challenge. First 5.3 isn't bad at all, but to get the higher score you needed to carry that desolate feel AND have a subject of emphasis. Certainly this is as desolate as any shot...but it doesn't have something to grab our eye. In fact, the moon does that the most, which pulls us away from the desolate mountainside.

Look at the Top 10 shots and notice how they capture the same feel, but still have a subject.

Message edited by author 2006-06-26 16:17:48.

building destruction
by alpharich

Comment:
I think the picture is a good one. Fits the subject well. A few small issues:

1) USM, if you used it, left a halo around the smokestacks. You could use the history brush to get rid of that.
2) Tilted horizon? Could be an optical effect. I would have levelled the roofline in the building and let the other lines fall where they may.
3) You are a bit of a victim from the small canvas size. There just isn't a ton of detail in the garbage. Some pictures suffer more than others from the 640 pixels.

Lonely Days
by BeeCee

Comment:
you must have hit on a good image, because you scored a 5.4 with some clear problems on PP. The immediate issue I noticed was the pixelation in the grays. The puddle reflection and above the bench as well. Ah, I see you did posterize. I'm not quite sure why (although I don't have a ton of experience with the effect).

The composition and subject give a nice desolation feel. At first I wanted to crop out the large tree or rock on the right, but I decided, in the end, that it works with it in.

Abandoned Hope
by jerowe

Comment:
Hmmm, you know, I don't see any obvious problems with the shot. One thing that gets me a bit (but isn't a huge deal) is either her pose or the shadows or something makes her upper body look very triangular. In other words, her head looks disproportionately small. Maybe it's the hood holding her hair down and we are used to seeing the extra space hair takes up. That isn't enough to get you down to a 5.4 though. One other thought is that she looks perhaps a bit too clean to be truly forlorn. Is life really that bad with your manicured toes in your flip flops and designer jeans made to look ragged?

I bet your biggest issue here was the emotional definition of desolation. Yes, I 100% agree it fits, but people are so literal on this site it probably lost some for that. Note the 29 4s. There is no way a photo of this quality gets a 4 other than people don't think it fits the challenge well.

I think the composition, focus and lighting are all well done. Just chalk this one up to the voters not "getting it" because they take an average of 3-5 seconds to vote each picture.