Palistinians go to Work in West Bank and Gaza again
by Gunnsi

Comment:
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression:
Strong subject. Contrast between the silhouettes and the sky add to the strong theme.

Composition:
The composition is good. It's a little minimalistic but that works well with the early morning aspect.

Subject:
Strong subject however it's difficult placing the subject without first reading the title. Although I have no suggestions on how you could improve that unless there was a landmark nearby that could have been captured in the shot.

Technical (Colour and light):
The lighting and color is good. One issue I do have is there seems to be some "fuzziness" going on around the silhouettes. That may just be jpg compression. If so I would suggest using less compression. Looking at the properties this photo weighs in at just 24k and you are alloted 150k for challenge entries so be sure to utilized as much of that 150k as possible to avoid artifacts.

Improvement:
As I mentioned above, maybe find something that can tie the image more to the title without just relying on the title itself to describe the shot. This one is definitely difficult to do that since there are no faces to identify or unique structures but whenever possible try and do that. Also, utilize the file size you're afforded for the challenges. It does make a difference. Lastly, for an image to do well in DPC it needs a lot of wow factor. Even if this was a photo conveying peace in the Middle East I doubt this would help your score at DPC. At least not as well as a great sunset. So if you shot something like this again and wanted to do better with your score try and get something in that had some interesting cloud cover. That more than anything is what probably held you back in voting.

Summary:
Great take to the challenge. The subject was definitely news worthy.

Hope this was of some help. If you have any questions feel free to PM or email me. I look forward to seeing more of your work!

Message edited by author 2006-05-08 21:48:05.

water coolie
by blackenedwhite

Comment:
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression:
The color and grain is the first thing I notice.

Composition:
The framing of this is good and the negative space was used well.

Subject:
A bit bland. We don't really identify with the subject because what you decided to include in the photo doesn't tell us much. Where is he at? Where is he going? That sort of thing. Also, half his face is not in view so we don't really get a good sense of his expression/emotion he may be experiencing. I know with my candid entry I made a similar mistake.

Technical (Colour and light):
The color is good, which boosts interest. However, the lighting is a bit harsh. I think had this been a b/w image it probably would have felt more appropriate along with the grain. Speaking of which, the grain is probably a lot harder to pull off in a color photo than a b/w or sepia image.

Improvement:
Include more "story" in the shot. If there was a shop nearby or a group of people in the direction he was walking including that would have helped tell a story. Even if those people had nothing to do with him it would place him in better context so we know a little more about this person's life and let imagination go from there.

Summary:
A good take to the challenge. In terms of where this ranked, DPC tends to prefer cleaner images so the grain and the harsh light held this back probably more than anything else. However, don't take that to mean DPC voters are right voting this way. After all it's a site full of photographers who are very picky about certain things, which often times are just trival so just bare that in mind. The most important thing IMO is telling a good story with your photography and everything else is just secondary.

Edited for clarity.

Message edited by author 2006-05-08 21:09:21.

E-71 wins again the World Championship of Windsurf
by alexgarcia

Comment:
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression:
Looks professional and very photojournalish

Composition:
Don't really have any issues with it except maybe the lack of space at the top where the sail nearly touches the frame, however I get what you were trying to do (i.e. avoid a perfectly centered horizon).

Subject:
This is my main problem I have. It looks like those things are just floating out there by themselves since the surfers are on the other side of it. That's a shame because I think this would have scored a lot higher if that wasn't the case.

Technical (Colour and light):
No problems here for me. The main subject stands out and is quite vibrant in color so you did everything well to capture that.

Improvement:
Just make the athletes more prominent in shots like this.

Summary:
Excellent photo with just that one flaw. Great accomplishment since this appears to be your first effort shooting with that long a lens.

Delta Phorce Commando
by bravo six

Comment:
LOL. Shoe horned a bit? I don't care. Although was Chuck Norris not available? He might kick your ass for this. :P

Deforming Parallax Conundrum
by Ecce_Signum

Comment:
So did you build a futuristic city just for this shot??? Great cinema look. 9!

Direct Pursuit a Cycling story
by fotodude

Comment:
I like this. I can definitely see this used in a poster however since it's not the typical DPC image I don't expect this to do well. Also, you put yourself out there with your title. The word "story" is going to garner a lot of downgraded votes.

Diana's Possessed Carrot
by BigK

Comment:
You sure Diana's not possessed? :P

Desperate Phone Call
by talikf

Comment:
I'm sure the text is going to sway voters on the positive however I'm ignoring them since the challenge isn't about creating posters but rather producing a photo for use in a poster. However with that said this is a great photo for that purpose. The dark, low key is perfect for this purpose. Gets a 9.

Darcy the Pirate Cop: Arresting the Evil Scientist
by steinar

Comment:
Definitely has that in your face aspect that is quite common with movie posters. Btw, I assume this is Steiner. If it is I think you would have been better served going with a remake of this shot "Learn to be nice, not nasty". That one just screams LucasFilms to me.

Penn Relays, world's largest annual track meet, attended by 20,000 athletes and 100,000 plus fans.
by _eug

Comment:
Very nice photo. I can definitely see this in a slide show of AP photos. As a front page photo I would think having something that included the finish line would have been better but it certainly didn't hurt you here. Congrats on your first ribbon!