ombra scura
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Nice and eerie and like Niall says, has a really strange 3D feel to it...and strange is always good in my book :-) Great tones and though it looks like your right hand is busy holding the camera to take the pic, I can't help but wonder what that sinister left hand is up to. No good I'd guess! Very well seen and caught, could be a cover for a murder mystery. As for the low placing...*sigh*...I tend to have the same problems. In a challenge like this it seems too easy to cross the line from obscure to abstract, and that's all I can think of.

Hope this helps,

Susan

Morning window obscure
by clickodak

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Guess who is writing your critique for Obscured...I like the idea behind this shot, very good idea to make the pic through a partly fogged-up car window. The swipe to show us the tree was probably accidental in how it mirrors the tree shape. But I think it's the white of the house to the left that cost you here, it's like a flashing neon sign drawing us away from all the soft magic you have there in the middle and to the right. Zooming in a bit to focus more on the tree through the swipe, but without showing the house, probably would have helped.

Keep at it, Marcel; you're one of those tough photogs who can be in the lower 50 for awhile, then give everyone a pleasant surprise when you ribbon. Just keep shooting and don't be afraid to zoom in, zoom out, get down on your belly or up on a stepladder (safely of course)...just keep at it, experiment, have fun and learn.

Susan

Presence
by angelo75

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This critique is a little late but ah well, better late than never. Excellent interpretation of the challenge and even better execution, which is so simple, with the big white static columns flanking this tiny dynamic figure in red. The lighting is great, no highlights blinking away and looking like bleach has been poured over the photo. The colour pop is just right and very well executed. I hope your daughter got a nice gift for helping you win a ribbon - and most fitting, a red ribbon!

Basically I cannot think of any way at all to improve this pic. It's truly lovely and I'm glad I was one of your 7s. Very well done and I hope you keep entering!

Feel free to PM me with any questions

Susan

Red Maple Leaf
by clickodak

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Aha, I guessed this was one of yours before I saw your name at the bottom, Marcel :-)

I gave this shot a 6 during voting. Here's why. I love the red maple leaf, it's nice and sharp, and oh so very, very safe. Centred composition, lots of extra twigs etc in the bg. Lighting behind is a little bland so it's not helping by backlighting the leaf which would help set it on fire and give it that nice glow. A tighter crop may have helped as would some cloning to get out distracting twigs behind the leaf.

Fall being what it is - very variable weather and all those brilliant colours going to waste - it doesn't hurt to pick up a fallen leaf and position it to advantage and then shoot it. But if this is all you had to work with, once again, contrast and saturation are your friends in post. That and maybe a different crop, or even try something like rotating the image and see if it brings new life to the image. I did that once in a Perspective challenge and got a blue ribbon, so it works at times! :-)

If it makes you feel any better, every year on DPC there is a Fall Foliage challenge and every year I shoot masses of pics of glowing golden sugar maple leaves, and rarely enter any of them, cause although they are pretty - staged or not - it's extremely difficult to come up with a fall foliage shot that hasn't already been done many times before. So to try and outdo them is VERY tough; if you can indeed come up with a new way to shoot leaves, please tell me!

Susan

Raining Day
by clickodak

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Merry Christmas, Marcel! Here's my critique for you on this very lovely image. Good composition, nice bright focal point, good use of negative space, nice dreamy feel to the whole image. Could use a little more contrast or saturation but as I was one of your 7s, I honestly don't know why this didn't do better. Wondering if people thought you just used a filter in post to get that effect?

Very glad to read in your notes that you put enough thought into the shot to actually sketch out what you wanted to get. That's an excellent idea as it makes you think and help cement the idea you want in your mind, so then you can work backwards to what you need to do to shoot it to get what you want. I believe gyaban uses this technique too, and as his work tends to be very complicated, it's just as well he does!

Anyway keep up the good work, don't stop what you're doing.

Susan

Nana's in the Garden a "little worse for wear"
by kiwinick

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Cute pic, like the idea of a drunken nana teddy in the garden :-) But I think there are too many props here cluttering things, all the potted plants are distracting as is the paving stone in front. Otherwise nice light and exposure, good work in a Minimal challenge!

Susan

Long drive home
by gmink

Comment:
gritins frum crteek klub

yer shutr spid too slow. Hold camrah in hand mek pikshur jerkylookin. Pikshur ok, but nid fokl poynt and to mek shutr fastr.

In English....if you want to get a nice crisp shot esp while riding in the backseat of a car, you need to use a much faster shutter. If you're going for a zoomblur through the windshield, then you need a tripod to stabilize your camera, and you need to use a long exposure get the desired effect. If you're going for something like this, that is: Read Eric's notes, this isn't as difficult as it looks. Look too at his composition to see why he ribboned twice with basically the same image!

Susan

Message edited by author 2015-12-31 13:09:22.

Sumac Flames
by clickodak

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Muwahahahaaa...so we meet again, Marcel ;-) Glad to see I'm one of your 6s. This is a very nice shot, sharp and lots of contrast between the backlit leaves and those in the foreground. Good lighting and colours all throughout. Only problem is, there really isn't a dominant element to act as a focal point and that's where this image falls a little flat. Some commenters compare the leaves to soldiers, and that's both good and bad: they're all uniform, so to speak, and all are doing their best to look exactly like the other.

So what you need is a renegade element to break this perfect symmetry and cohesion and just wreak a little havoc here. maybe one leaf that's way more in the foreground, or one broken off a little or drooping. Something to break up that nice pattern, just enough.

Susan

REST BAN MIRROR SUN GLASSES
by doctabrez

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Not bad at all for a portrait done with a very reflective pair of sunglasses (btw the brand name is Ray Bans), and a p&s to boot. Love the colours on her sari, the shades dominate the shot but don't overwhelm her. Really like the partial smile/near-grin on her face. Don't know why you cranked up the ISO so high, though...are you shooting on *green camera* mode still? If so, time to learn how to do everything on your initiative and tell that camera what to do, rather than let it make all the decisions. Turn that dial, on all your cameras, to M mode, and leave it there.

Feel free to PM me

Susan

all at once
by jagar

Comment:
Congrats John on the yellow...I just love the uneasiness in the guy's expression and body!