The adventures of the young Wolverine
by Sisto

Comment:
One of my faves, some silly humour with the usually dead-serious Wolverine. Love the post work in particular. Congrats on the HM!

Comic
by Lydia

Comment:
Hehe the silliness of this one made me laugh. Great job Lydia and congrats on the red!

... and so it begins ...
by mefnj

Comment:
I love this one, gave it an 8. Huge congrats on the blue!

textures,shapes, colour ,shadow and Light. A Microcosm of a forest...
by kiwinick

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Technically this photo has some strong points, in terms of basic things like focus, ok lighting and using the rule of thirds...but, sorry, it's just a very bland photo. The focal point seems to be the second tree trunk, and that's all folks! The title references a microcosm of a forest; here I see a few tree trunks and a lot of grass, which simply doesn't fulfill my idea of a forest. I don't like being harsh, but there is nothing to draw me in and make me want to look more. Even stunning light would have its work cut out for it here. Look at the top ten images, and learn.

Hope this helps.

Susan

#ambition #dreamer #thoughtprocess #visiorary #focus
by doodoohead2016

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

First off, why all the hashtags in your title? Just give it a title, with no hashtags, thankya verra much.

Now I understand that this is a portrait from behind, but dare I say that it is a little too much from behind? All I can tell is that the subject is young, male, black and has a lot of tats. Otherwise there is nothing to tell us about him being a visionary, or thinking about the future, let alone a musician of any sort. He's staring at...what? Buildings? The middle distance? Can't tell.

And those same buildings are doing nothing for the shot except providing a distracting background. I find myself trying to see what he's looking at, not him. The lighting is okay, comp boring but acceptable. This is a very competitive site, and in order to do well you really need to up your game, a lot. Look at the images that beat you and learn.

Susan

Silphium integrifolium
by Cyrilda

Comment:
Susie, huge congrats on the red! Flowers are definitely your genre :-) Keep up the great work!

Nightscape at Singapore Marina Barrage
by vincentlee_el

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Nice skyline of a city at night but there is so much going on that I don't know where to look - Jake also mentioned this problem in his comment with the lightning strike being lost amidst the clutter. There are many fascinting elements in this pic but they all detract from one another. Learn to look for the one thing that makes your photo special, and emphasize it. Crop in and play with it in post (but read the rules carefully to ensure you aren't breaching any of them) and then enter it. Remember too that in Free Study, everyone trots out their very best pic taken that month, so competition is very tough and you must have more than just a pretty pic to enter.

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me with any questions.

Susan

Keeping fit
by Wilsonphang

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This one makes me smile cause I practice yoga and can see the concentration in both the face and the bodies of the yogis working on what looks like a very deep version of Chair pose :-) Love the way the bg is there but not distracting and its slight oofness gives the pic depth. However the middle portion is lacking somewhat, as the instructor is the obvious focal point, but her gaze is on her student (as it should be) not on the photog. To be honest I find the colours of the clothing etc to be distracting as they play the eye all over the photo. A lot of the time street pics are in b/w and I feel this would benefit strongly from that treatment. A tighter crop in from the right - keep the two joggers/speedwalkers and lose the two yogis in that corner - and I think you would have a much stronger pic.

Overall a very nice image, wish it had done better. But rest assured that Free Studies are always very hard to do well in, and you have a whole month in a very interesting part of the world in which to shoot, so make the most of it! Feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

Susan

Dream vacation
by Amberkhim

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

What a location, and yes it does look like a dream spot for sure...and the hunky guy's presence doesn't hurt either :-) Great depth of field to show off that spectacular scenery and the lighting is perfect for catching all those wonderful tropical-destination blues and greens. Some bleachiness in the clouds, always a pet peeve of mine, but not enough to be a huge distraction. So why didn't this image do better? I think the composition needs improvement. Shooting down at your focal point, the man, almost seems to downplay his role in the pic. I feel that he is competing with the scenery, not being complemented by it. A lower angle may have brought him into more prominence without losing the rest of the scene. And strictly fwiw I would have cropped the image more, either as a square and done away with the second body of water to the right, or cropped out the top third and got rid of the majority of the sky. Especially as landscapes are popular FS subjects, we see an awful lot of them here, so you really need a stunning one to do well in FS.

Hope this critique has been of help, feel free to PM me with any comments or questions.

Susan

Message edited by author 2017-07-16 09:29:40.

Distracted
by hsteg

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Love this shot - the guys are so into watching the woman strutting across the square that they don't notice the pigeon sneaking a snack :-) Very well seen street photo and the more I look at it, the more I like it. At first I thought it was all about the guy in black as he is dead centre, but the line of the buildings behind draw you to his buddy, down to the bench and then to the sneaky pigeon and departing woman. Lots of nice tones including true black and true white. And you got a top ten finish, so congrats and be proud. I do look forward to seeing more of your work in the future, and feel free to PM me with any questions or comments.

Susan