HomeSweetHome
by sganey

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

First off, welcome to DPC! I notice you recently registered and this is your second challenge. I hope more is to follow.

Technicals:
The lighting is good. I like how the lighting falls off a bit on the edges giving it somewhat of a vignette look. Maybe for this challenge the "old feel" sepia may not have been the best choice but overall I liked it.

Subject/composition:
Good choice in subject. However, I wish she was looking at the camera to give it more of a portrait look rather than a candid/snapshot look if you know what I mean. Also, next time move the lamp a bit to the right so it is independant from her head. In terms of the composition it's good. All in all you I think you did a good job of capturing her in her environment.

Summary:
Good photo one that I think was underrated looking at the score. The processing may not be everyone's taste but it's by no means bad. Also, the image is on the soft side (i.e. not sharp). Just to let you know those types of images tend to not do as well in the challenges so keep that in mind in the future. Personally, I think it works fine here. The main thing for me is she isn't looking at the camera and therefore it's harder to "get to know her" if you know what I mean.

That's it. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Good luck in the future!

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 22:44:58.

Little Hands Little Feet 4
by whatsthatbeeping

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

First off, I wanted to say welcome to DPC! I notice you registered recently and this is your second challenge so far. Now on to the critique.

Technicals:
I like the lighting. It gives form to your subject's hands and enhances the sand's texture. The color is also good.

Subject/composition:
The way you composed this shot left many (myself included) wondering why you entered this in this particular challenge. There is simply not enough shown here to make it a portrait. However, challenge theme aside I think this is a good study on the kid's hands. As mentioned before the lighting enhances the hands and the sand making it pleasing to view.

The composition is ok but could be better, IMO. I think this might have worked better as a portrait oriented shot so that the hands would be positioned at the top and the sand would fill the rest of the frame. The falling sand would then give the appearance that the frame is filling up with sand. Anyway, just a suggestion. Good luck in the future and I look forward to seeing more of your work!

The Driver
by librodo

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

What can I say? Another great portrait from a master. The thing I like most about this is how you composed the shot. He's centered, his elbow and the top part of his hair is cut off and the background is busy yet this turned out to be great photo. What that tells me is your focus was primiarly on him and capturing him rather than giving us something totally contrived and unreal. As such you've told me everything I need to know about this person to understand him and his enviroment. I can't think of anything else you'd want to acheive than that. Congrats on the ribbon and I look forward to seeing more of your work!

my profile for a peanut
by gazdi

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Technicals:
The lighting is adequate and the color is good. Since the challenge ran under advance editing I think you could have done more in post to bring out the subject more (i.e. brighten up the body, eyes to strength the focal point).

Subject/composition:
You probably already know that choosing this subject was the main reason you scored so poorly. Voters were expecting to see a human portrait in their working/living environment and you gave them something completely different. The composition is ok but could have been better (more off-center).

Summary:
A cute photo but one that didn't meet the challenge. If this was an animal portrait challenge this probably would have scored in the mid-5s in my opinion. Overall it's good but it lacks that something extra to score better than that. My suggestion there is if available work on this some more in post processing to bring out the subject. There's some detail there that could be enhance in photoshop or equivalent.

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 22:51:11.

The Darkroom Chronicles
by Gunnsi

Comment:
Gunnar your crazy! :P

Who's that girl?
by Rae-Ann

Comment:
I scored this image an 8 because it struck me as a great self portrait. I don't know you well but for this moment in time the camera caught you I felt I did and that's what makes a good self portrait, IMO.

And for that effort what does DPC do in typical fashion? It places it 183rd. Good grief. Most of the images that ranked ahead of this could only dream of the substance this had but alas we as a community just want our daily fix of exploding landscape backdrops, cool looking props and super tack sharp eyeballs that were dodged and burned to mathematical perfection. It would be great if ONE TIME a challenge rewarded authenticity over the constant illusions that ribbon each week.

Edited to add: Sorry about the rant. Just had to vent a bit. :) Oh and btw, there's nothing technically with your photo in my opinion. To me it lives and breathes and tells a thousand words and that is all any photographer/photoshop artist could hope to acheive so well done!

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 20:36:40.

No Place on the Pedestal for Limp Cheese
by fotomann_forever

Comment:
I left a similar comment on Rikki's shot but I can't believe this didn't score at least a 6 in a challenge were high scores were dished out like they were going out of style. Oh well. Maybe this is for the best regarding your enemeies (i.e. giving out low votes versus something more vengeful). :P

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 15:27:59.

"i'm just a verb"
by Rikki

Comment:
Look at those low votes. Ok maybe you're not carrying a cool looking axe with bulging muscles or jumping around in an Icelandic paradise but this wasn't that bad. Your score is actually worse than normal since the average in this challenge was a 5.8 something. Ok maybe I shouldn't bring that last part up. :P

Message edited by author 2006-05-26 15:21:03.

~Me~
by HBunch

Comment:
Congrats on a top 10!

down time
by margiemu

Comment:
This photo is nice and sharp and full of color and clarity. The camera settings you used and the lighting worked out great so good job there. I also like the composition. The main focus is off-center and I view this image from left to right which is natural for me.

The only suggest I have for improvement is maybe having your mouth closed or show teeth. You seem to be in the middle of that which gives you an odd expression. Other than that I like the pose. You got a nice catch light in your eyes and your hair flows well through the image. Good job all the way around.