Eclipse
by JBHale

Comment:
Technicals: you kept the light from blowing, so that is good. The composition is extrememly static with the centered crop and black background. Focus is on, although the light gives a soft edge. That probably is an artifact of the light or color rather than your focus or DOF.

The feel: As mentioned above, the composition lets this shot down. There isn't too much to grasp after the initial look. Therefore people gave it a 5 for solid technicals and quickly moved on.

The game: Work on adding more interest in your shots. If you get that into the shot, your score will definitely go up.

Bathtime Buddy
by Puckzzz

Comment:
Aww, do I bust you for being 0.0084 over 5.5? Naw, I'll let you slide.

Technicals: well lit. The centered composition isn't bad here. Focus is on.

The feel: The toy does bring a smile to my face. It's cute and the colors are nice against the black background.

The game: It's a toy and nothing else. yes, I know the challenge was "toys", but we don't have too much to work with after the cute look and the nice green color. I think you squeezed about as high a score as possible for your subject. Using him in some context may have done you better.

I see London, I see Sam's town...
by booboo_goon

Comment:
Oooh, party foul. Your score is over 5.5. I'll give you a short critique though. I like the composition and the sky is a nice color. Overall it looks like it is either suffering from some mild oversharpening or the lights were bleeding a tiny bit on the exposure. I see it mainly in the lights on the left building and the "citigroup" sign which is red and may be the issue in itself as red saturates quite quickly on a digital sensor.

Eye of the Tiger
by JaimeVinas

Comment:
Technicals: There is something about the sharpness, and I think it's the tungsten lighting. The problem with using such a warm light (and I know it wasn't your choice) is you are using less of the sensor since red makes up only 1/3rd of the pixels. Anyways, there is a sharpness quality to this picture that lets it down somewhat. Composition is just fine, even with the extreme landscape crop.

The feel: You lose some intimacy with the tiger's right eye being in shadow. Fill flash or waiting for a different moment are your only options there.

The game: Tigers seem to be a good subject on DPC. I'd head back to get this guy again later if you can.

The Times Crossword... In INK!?!?!
by klkitchens

Comment:
Technicals: lighting is flat. The composition is nice and the focus is on.

The feel: A clever approach to the challenge. However, your background kills you. Why couldn't you be doing the Times crossword with a pen in the park? The BG screams "this shot was set up in 15 seconds" and voters don't like that. Aesthetically the BG also has shapes and objects that take our eye away from the subject, but don't reward. Were you in the park with some nicely OOF flowers or trees or something our eye would go to them, note they are nice and pretty, and then come back to the subject. Here we go to the upper right and think, "what the hell is that on the wall?"

The game: Keep up that creativity. I like it. It isn't always rewarded on DPC, but don't let that get you down.

Serenity Before The Harvest
by wickee_one

Comment:
Technicals: you did an excellent job with the contre-jour. That takes skill and you handled it well. I like the gradient the sky provides. Sillouettes are also nicely black. I do not like partially sillouetted subjects.

The feel: The biggest issue with the picuture is probably the jumbled appearance of the objects. They do not flow nicely which makes the overall shot less appealing. If it were the two silos and the central pole only, I think it would look nice with the symmetry, but this is ruined by the building behind and the support on the left.

The game: The 5-score rewarded the sky, the ground kept it from being a 6.

Millies
by irisheyes

Comment:
Technicals: lighting is nice. I like the way the building facade pops out of the shadows. The biggest technical issue, IMO, is the softness of the picture. I don't see what lens you used on the shot, but my first guess is it's a product of the lens. I see softness like this in the 75-300 a lot.

The feel: I like the subjects you chose to selectively desat except the sign in the corner. It pulls the eye away. I know you couldn't resist because it was such a nice red color, but perhaps doing a partial desat of it so it's still red, but muted compared to the other colors. My preference, however, would probably be to make it B&W altogether.

The game: Watch your border. People, for some reason, don't like a thick inner stripe.

Awakening
by krafty1

Comment:
Technicals: Ooh, this is going to be a tough one because it's really similar to my own Rural shot. That may make me want to turn it into my shot and perhaps that's not what you were going for. Anyway, the first thing that jumps out is the flat lighting outside the blown sun and sky. This is a really demanding shot to pull off and it may not have been possible to do. What you would like is some dynamic light on the scenery while still being able to pull off the sunrise. Really hard to do. Composition is decent, although I might have looked at it with half the left tree cropped off just to see what it looked like. It's possible you could have saved some sky detail with a graduated ND filter, but maybe not. Again, really hard to pull a shot off shooting straight into the sun. The OOF bushes in the foreground are, I think, a nice touch.

The feel: Does feel rural and sunrise is a great rural idea.

The game: You might have lost some points going up against a very similar shot which happened to ribbon. Voters love to "compare" and if they feel another is better, you might get the short end of the voting. Nothing you can do about that though, is there?

Lennys at Night
by BAMartin

Comment:
Technicals: the technicals of street photography are not as important as the feel. that being said, there are a few issues here which get in the way (see below). The glare of the glass and the dark background behind the walker's head. Some dodging could help the second. Perhaps a somewhat tighter crop would help hone our attention as well.

The feel: To me, an admitted novice of street photography, I am looking for an emotional connection. You have severe challenges here because a) the man behind the window is obscured by the glare and b) the man walking doesn't show us his face. What is going on? Why am I, as the viewer, interested in this scene? I don't recall the top 10, but I bet the majority that use people as the subject, have their faces prominently displayed.

The game: I can't comment on the game of street photog because I know so little about it... B&W seems like a natural choice though.

i c u
by smardaz

Comment:
Technicals: Not bad. There seems to be a cast to the picture, although the warmth doesn't hurt the picture. The composition isn't bad, although I wonder what a vertical treatment would do to the shot. One possibility would have been to shoot with a longer lens so the DOF is deeper which gives the shadow more of a sharp delineation. Again, I'd have to see it though to know if it improves things.

Feel: A cute cat shot. I do get the curiosity feel.

The game: Ya, DNMC, I guess. At least it doesn't scream "celebrate life" to me...