Will it never end?
by vawendy

Comment:
Looks like a scene from the Matrix movies! I remember movable stacks like these from when I lived in vancouver, they were very ominous. I gave you a 7 in voting. Good shot!

all the chilly things sit by, waiting upon a child's eye.
by tate

Comment:
Great work! Congrats on the ribbon!

Time Hunter
by Marika

Comment:
Huge congrats, Maria! This was my pick for the blue!

Take a Seat
by 777STAN

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I empathize here because I've shot in a similar fashion, trying to fit as much into a shot as possible. Sadly, it rarely works.

The highlights are blown out on the arm of closest chair and that whole side of it looks quite oof. Crop is very, very tight on all the chairs, lighting is flat, giving entire shot a washed-out look. Compostion is quite cluttered, with one chair piled atop another and that atop yet another chair. Background of fallen leaves just looks drab.

With such a selection of chairs you could have made the pinky Adirondack chair really pop, by putting it between the two metal patio chairs and shooting perhaps another foot or two to your right. This was an Advanced challenge, so you could have used a magnetic lasso (or similar tool depending on what pp program you have) and really blasted the colour on the Adirondack.

An aperture of 4.5 is quite shallow, even just a few stops down (say f.6 or f.8) could have made a world of difference. Going by the fast shutter I'd say you shot handheld.

FWIW: In a word: tripod. Even if you only use it for shots like this it's well worth it, because then you can close the ap wayyyyy down - try f.8 - and leave the shutter open for at least a second.

Hope this helps, and as I learned awhile ago: you have to take a good shot first, because all the pp in the world won't help a poor one.

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Chair in heaven
by Soe_Nonac

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Excellent focus, nice clean shot, great pov and use of thirds. So why didn't it finish quite a bit higher? I can only imagine that that is due to its being so stark and isolated, there really isn't a sense of place or story here.

Looking at your settings, I find it surprising that you shot at such a high ISO so I imagine you shot handheld. FWIW I would have brought along a tripod and slowed down the ISO and aperture quite a bit, left the shutter open for at least a second, if possible chosen a day with some weather happening to capture some scudding clouds/rain/sun/what have you. Could have been quite effective, especially given the title.

So technically, it's an excellent shot. Now all it needs is a stronger concept to help it place higher.

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Please - Can I Get Down Now?
by patches

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Very cute shot, Patches really, really, REALLY casting a wistful eye at the floor. Lose the flowers and this would have been a much stronger shot. As it is I would give it a 5; sans flowers, probably a 6 if not a 7, because as a professional horsewoman I know how much animals can move during a shoot!

On the other hand the flowers do echo the colours used in the chair so it's not all bad. But in this case they halt the flow of the eye, from the dog to the chair. I also would have tried to shoot a bit wider, to give everything some room to move as it were.

FWIW, in pp I would have tried some shadows/highlights to help bring out the other eye, here Wigglebutt looks a little piratical, unless (s)he really does have just one eye.

Overall not a bad attempt, the idea is very sweet but needs to be simplified, and in terms of exectution you just need a little more light, and if possible more distance between subject and bg. If background blurred out, not too bad, but if so then either go for bokeh or at least ensure that subject is in focus.

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Chair with a pattern
by hajeka

Comment:
Hmm very interesting floor pattern, that's for sure! If you mean it's like a dropcloth to catch paint splatters, dust, debris and the like by all means keep it :-) Chair looks like patio furniture esp with the holes punched in the seat. Odd but fascinating image. Good work!

Chair Sublime
by raish

Comment:
Hey Peter, definitely an excellent brown effort...but you do show a chair, albeit one hidden, and more of a stepladder than a chair....good use of thirds, lighting OK, but I am afraid it is too good, it doesn't suck enough to get you the brown :-( better luck next time!

Stack of Two
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Very cool POV, Robert, and I'm sure you know I am a huge fan of extreme/adventurous POV. The hairline border works nicely and love the way the lines of the chairback and seat lead to the leaf. Good work!

Blue Monday
by Kelli

Comment:
Very nice and dreamy, Kelli! The high ISO surprises me, but if it results in images like this, who's going to complain? Lovely shot.