Sparklicious!
by Brielle

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I smiled when I saw this image in voting, and it makes me smile now that it's been assigned to me to critique! Very funky, Lily Tomlin comes to mind here. I love shots like this and am glad you were sharp enough to know a good prop when you saw it, and resourceful enough to hoard sparklies :-) I might have cloned in a few more sparkles on the lower part of the bottom lip. The beauty dish's reflection adds to the glam look you went for. (Should get me one of those.) I like that you let your hair frame your face, and don't see the bg as being too close at all. It would be interesting to see this shot cropped in portrait orientation.

Looks like you had fun, and you entered a shot that you liked, and eh wala 24/113 is a very fine score. You should be proud! Keep on shooting and entering.

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

Winter View
by talzam

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

At long last, some ski goggles, was wondering when they would appear. Love the crazy colours and reflection of the chateau and mountains in them. But I'm also wishing there was just that little bit more, as has been suggested, a human face with breath visible would have been the icing on the proverbial cake. In terms of technicals, the comp is fine, a little burning on the snowy rooftops and sky would help as they are dangerously close to competing with the white of the goggles.

Overall nice work, keep shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me

Susan

envisioning
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Ah the nice seditious approach of our venerable leader. I do like it though with everything through the glasses being in focus - must be pretty tough to get but then I'd guess you know your lensbaby inside out, upside-down and backwards by now :-) The angle of the horizon adds dynamism to the shot as does the slighter tilt of the glasses.

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

non sum qualis eram
by disassociation

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Ooh baby, there is a lot going on in those old aviators! Wilson Bryan Keyes must be spinning in his grave! The nude on the couch looks like she's just been joyously ravished and the compass on the book cover adds a sense of mystery to the shot. The fact that the nude is basically centred and in focus, and not the shades, hardly seems to have affected your vote - top 30% is pretty good! I think too many voters are literal and simply want to see the glasses. Some would be turned off by the nude, others would probably miss her altogether. The use of Latin in the title probably got a few people googling that phrase too :-)

Overall a very fun and cheeky image and more to the point I am so glad that you went with a shot that pleased you, and you didn't try to pander to the DPC vox populi (see, I know some Latin too ;-)

Keep shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

Night Shades
by romanlatham

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Looks like you had lots of fun here, which is important, and glad that you got some practice in beforehand. The freaky colours are precisely what I get when I shoot out in my backyard, for the same reason, those nasty old orange sodium lights. But in this case they work pretty well, especially with the blue of your painted-light glasses. The setting is interesting and the rocks frame you nicely.

Composition is OK, definitely too centred though. One of the commenters already made the recommendations that sprung to mind in terms of the cropping, which would do a lot to improve this image. You could probably have shortened the exposure time and just gone with a higher ISO, imho. Overall a good shot that just needs a few minor technical tweaks.

If you really do want to get into painting with light, I suggest you check out Magnumphotography's portfolio. Ryan's done lots of PWL and he'll be glad to share any tips with you.

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

snow in daily life
by disassociation

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This is the sort of shot that voters simply don't pay enough attention to. The nice muted tones, the structure's lines and red-rusty areas all make for a very simple, pleasing composition. It's probably the lack of a hard-hitting blast of colour that hurt you here the most. The slightly oof foreground elements of the image tend to fall flat here too. Some may not automatically see the correlation between snow and your love for it. However, you do seem to have an eye for the lines and shapes which I enjoy a great deal. I like that you used a tripod (r have a VERY steady hand, lol) and used a high ISO to get all these nice tones. Maybe too small an aperture, though?

Overall a decent entry, I definitely feel it should have scored higher (I gave you a 6 in voting). Keep on shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

Golden Age of Travel
by CaptainJack

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Basically this is a very nice shot of a lovely old train, though I find the angle a little safe. If you had been able to get closer to shoot from a lower POV you may have had a much stronger, more dynamic image to work with. The glarey sun is a bit much and could have been burnt down a bit without damaging the image.

PP is very subjective, it's hard to tell someone what they should do with their images. However, here the answer is easy as you have pretty much hit the nail on the head. HDR is indeed a love/hate topic here. I don't hate it, and have used it myself, but don't like getting my eyeballs blistered by too-heavy HDR! IMHO this is getting to be too much HDR, but I have seen much worse here. If in doubt, or if you're unhappy with the image yourself, rethink things a little. Then go back to a copy of the original file and work with it, but scale things back a little.

Again, and strictly my opinion and experiences talking here...no amount of pp will save a poor image, and it's very easy to ruin a perfectly fine image with too much pp. Check out my own portfolio from approx 2006-2008 and you'll see what I mean - I really do know what I'm talking about!

You may want to look up previous HDR challenges and try this little trick. Go through all the images, in reverse order, and work your way up to the front page. You'll notice that the images get cleaner, and if you see entries with what you feel are levels of HDR you want to approximate, read the comments. Try PM'ing that particular photog and ask for advice or hints. Most people here are pretty good folk and will help you out.

Hope this has been of help, keep on shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

Bridge Over Troubled Waters
by IAmEliKatz

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Love the descrip of how you got this shot :-) Nice silky water, as you can see from many FS winners, DPCers are suckahs for silky water and atmospheric foggy/misty stuff. Nice clean shot, with the bridge wasn't quite so close to centre. In a shot like this, the bridge is so distant it's virtually incidental, so you really need to decide which you're going for, the water or the sky? Good b/w conversion and if you're happy with the way this shot looked before the pping began, then perhaps scale back a little on the pp. Just a thought.

Feel free to PM me

Susan

bramble sunset
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Very interesting treatment of a bramble push, O Mighty Leader. Nice use of thirds and cradled as some have mentioned, in the brambles. I like the way the light catches the branches and intertwines with them, definitely gives it that brambly feel. I can almost feel the thorns snagging my clothes :-) Nice use of the Lensbaby to give it that slight zoomy effect.

Feel free to PM me,

Susan

Sunset run
by joisteini

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Nice tones here and an interesting story to go with the giant metal ball.

There is a lot going on in this photo, which can either help an entry or hinder it. On the one hand, there is a lot to explore and see, which is always good; but on the other hand the eye goes wandering around too much, searching for a focal point to work from. Composition is a bit cluttered as a result. The runner blends a little too much into the pathway, a lower and closer POV to isolate them against the sky would have had more of an impact.

To me, the ball/River Harp is the focal point, mostly due its size and shape - everything else is angular. If only everything else on that stretch of path was gone, the image as it's shot would be a bit stronger.

If you are able to reshoot, by all means do; experiment with different heights and angles as the locale looks very promising. It just needs more exploring. Keep on shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan