Sunset Over Cronton
by WendyWoo

Comment:
For a first sunset, it's very nice.

Comp[osition is good, the position of the sun and horizon in particular.

The tree branches look good against the sky and good texture in the clouds.

You could try some things with the exposure and hue/saturation tools, you might get something you like even better.

Northern Cardinal
by timfythetoo

Comment:
knew this would do well. Nice job. Congrats

A portal to the skyline
by JaimeVinas

Comment:
Glad to see this ribbon stuck! Another ribbon for the Houston chapter of DPC!!!

Kiss
by sir_bazz

Comment:
This is my favorite in the challenge, I jsut tried to add it to my favorites here, but it errored out because I already had it faved during voting! ;-)

Stare
by lovethelight

Comment:
Knew this would finish high. Congrats!

I would love to know how you got that effect in the eyes.

Trashing the Dress
by Ristyz

Comment:
I had this one picked for the blue. Incredible picture.

Stare
by lovethelight

Comment:
awesome eyes,

Deep Reflection
by JimiRose

Comment:
I personnlay like this shot a lot.

B&W was a good choice for this. Sets the mood nicely.

High contrast with hot highlights usually will not fare well here at DPC. While it may be an artistic expression, some will see it as a techical failing.

Since the challenge was run under the advanced rule set, I might have cloned out the lights in the upper left above the head of the person in the background. It pulls the eye away from your subject.

Other than that, if this is the effect you were going for, then you were successful. If you are trying to score higher, be careful of the extremes in contrast.

Surrounded
by riversong

Comment:
Shooting snow is tricky. Good job here recovering from the underexposed original.

A general rule for shooting snow is too overexpose form the meter reading by 1-2 stops. You would have had more details in the trees as well.

Otherwise, not much wrong here at all. Good comp, nice post processing. No real "wow" factor needed to do well on DPC but a really nice score.

Cuddle Buddy
by XMountaineer

Comment:
First of all, I really appreciate the details in your comments. That goes a long way to tell exactly what's going on here.

If you are using the built in flash on your 400D you will rarely get nicely lit pictures. The light is too direct and too close to the center of the lens. It's amazing that you didn't get some serious red eye shooting that close. If you are thinking about purchasing accessories for your camera a Canon 430EX would be something to consider.

While the focus is on your dog, the toy is too soft. This will detract from your score. You can control the depth of focus (called Depth of Field or DOF for short) by setting your camera on AV mode and select a higher number for your F-Stop. F8 or F11 would have helped here.

You say in your comments that your new to the whole post processing thing. You don't have to buy Photoshop. A more reasoble entry level yet with advanced features in Adobe's Photo Elements. Get that and the 3rd party book on post processing techniques and you learn out to keep the yeallow saturation in check, sharpening, and other useful techniques.

Otherwise, the composition is good, the diagonal placement of the eyes works well.

Keep entering and have fun doing it.