Poésie classique
by idnic

Comment:
I like the decadent, debauched mood of this photograph and model. 8

good girl
by silverfoxx

Comment:
Another brilliant piece from you. I'm just going to wait for you to NOT get a ribbon in this challenge and then laugh at DPC (once again) for missing the brilliance that is right in front of their faces. I hope they prove me wrong. sorry that my stridency is keeping me from saying anything useful. It is difficult to talk about something that works so instantaneously. I am not going to point here to references. This is simply you. You use the haphazard folds of a backward shirt to convey a sense of not belonging, but at the same time to show the beauty of not belonging as well as the sadness, because the ill-fitting shirt drapes beautifully all around you. And then there is the perfect ivory skin tone, perfectly perfectly lit and captured. Like a painting, and yet more real, more physical, more three-dimensional than most photographs (the way some master paintings are). Brava. 10 doesn't begin to describe this.

Optimistic
by ShaneBlake

Comment:
Nice black and white tones, too bad about the cliched DPC-style composition. What am I supposed to do with all that black space? 6

The Lion Man
by dx_power

Comment:
Dang, I would love to see this without the silly selective desaturation. The pose of that tiger is just fantastic. 7

Blind
by Prime_Time

Comment:
This is an example of a title meaning so much to a photo. Because of the title, I think she is blind, yet she is looking right at me. It reminds me that the model can never see the viewer, it is always a pretense of sight, a pretense of connection. It also reminds me that this sort of "looking" is not about seeing, but rather presenting oneself, "facing" oneself to another self. this sort of "looking" is really just a way of saying "here I am." And when I know she is blind, that she cannot see me and yet looks so straight and steadfast in my direction, one word comes to mind: Fearless. Yes, this does everything a portrait can hope to do. It presents to us a soul, a living entity, a person and a persona and a personality. I haven't decided if I like the off-center composition. I'm not sure what it adds, but it doesn't detract, either. I hope it's not done just as a DPC way of doing things. 10

Attracted by Fire
by dreamy

Comment:
wonderful photo. his arms at the same angles as the firewood makes him a creature of fire. The processing gives this a horror-movie feel. Lots of mood and attitude in this photo. 8

A boy's best friend
by MackThePen

Comment:
Greetings from Critique Club!

You did a good job of finding the best composition. A square works well for this. Notice how dog and child form two shapes that swirl around and into each other, reminiscent of a yin-yang symbol. Note also how both of their faces actually distort as they press into each other. All these things suggest a merging of sorts, and that promotes the theme of love.

You got a complaint about the child's eye, but to me it represents an altered state, a meditative state, as does the closed eye of the dog. It is almost as if they form a new creature, with one eye from each of them. The boy's other eye seems to be looking not at us, but at (or into?) the dog. Of course, none of this esoteric hogwash was actually occurring, but it is implied via the illusion that is photography. Your other shots, taken of the same event, probably have completely different feelings to them. I think you made a good choice.

Now, about your DPC score. First of all, 5.5 is a great score for your first submission. Since the score runs from 1 to 10, 5.5 is the exact middle, but keep in mind that ribbon winners are generally in the low 7 range, so you only have two points to go! :)

So, how do you get those 2 points? One thing is lighting. This looks like it could be camera flash. That almost never works for DPC, unless it's "fill flash" used in conjunction with other lights or natural light. In general, you want to see your subject well-lit before you press the shutter. Another possibility is to put the camera on a tripod and use a long exposure. This will create interesting effects with both lighting and motion blur (hint: the DPC voter hates interesting). In both cases, make sure the white balance seems right. (This picture used a flash so the white balance is perfect.) You can correct white balance a number of ways in post-processing.

The other issue is composition, but I'm not going to tell you how to ruin your great sense of composition just to get a high score in some silly on-line challenge.

Love is Golden
by eris_star

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

sorry, I'm not one of the great studio photographers on this site, but I will tell you that the lighting seems off. You mentioned that you had to brighten it while converting. You'll get better results if it is bright enough in camera. This usually means lighting it brightly, but don't use a flash. That causes a direct light with no shadows, and glass items like these will reflect it back (unless you have an external flash that you can bounce off the ceiling).

Another possibility is to mount the camera on a tripod and use a long exposure. Sometimes this creates interesting effects, but I don't think it would work for a standard product shot like this. Also, when using indoor light, you sometimes have to correct the color. This coloring seems too yellow. You can correct color in Photoshop with color balance, hue/saturation, channel mixer or other tools, or better yet with a photo filter if you have it.

Once you handle lighting problems, you might want to give a thought to background. This folded cloth is pleasant to look at and better than a blank background, but still doesn't add anything to the story of the photo. The story is the background, i.e. how did this food get here? who is it for? what is it trying to achieve? Simply putting these things on a bed would tell a story, for example.

Well, that gives you a couple of important things to think about, anyway. Good luck in future challenges!

fruit and vegetables too
by charliebaker

Comment:
this is either whiterook being brilliant or a brilliant spoof. 10

Black to move
by whiterook

Comment:
white is very close to mate... I would move R to f5. That will give the king an escape route and protect the black Queen. The white Queen must keep defending f1 or trade Queens. (10)