Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway. -John Wayne
by ahjenny

Comment:
One of the tricks to glare is actually more light. The reason you get glare is because you're trying to expose for the darker areas of the subject whether you realize it or not. If you give those darker areas their own light you don't have to push your highlights to the max. For shots like these, you might want to make your own little light tent, which diffuses harsh light and spreads a nice soft light all over.

To your comment about the left ribbon being out of focus, it's not really. Your focus is great. The reason it seems that way is because it's out of the Depth of Field. You chose f/3.5 for this shot, which gives you a pretty narrow "DOF". If you were to bring that up to say f/8, the ribbon would be in the DOF also. Keep in mind that in doing that you'd need to increase the amount of light too by one more more ways; slower shutter speed, increased ISO, increased exposure compensation, or simply more light from your light source (gogo light tent!).

And for Rule of Thirds... meh, close enough! Maybe the angle of the left one is leaning too much to the right side? It's a simple straight forward, level shot, so if anyone is complaining about Rule of Thirds, they're probably being too picky. Yes, there is ways to make subjects like this have more impact. You can angle them differently, or lift them off the table and give them a fancy backdrop (hold them to a stormy sky, etc). I see this as a product shot though, and those are generally just as you have it.

_MG_4075-blur.jpg
by timfythetoo

Comment:
I much prefer this one to your ribbon. She's such a happy little clown! Her whole face is radiating joy.

Widecombe in the Moor
by paynekj

Comment:
What a remarkable location! Lucky you...

Ashridge
by Matthew

Comment:
Great fairytale colors

Brandon
by ssturges

Comment:
What exactly is "Brandon" doing? The lack of clear message will probably drop your score lower than if he were doing something that made sense to the viewer.

The Performance
by dmadden

Comment:
Could possibly use a little more open space between his fingers and the right edge of the photo, but overall this is quite well done. The exposure and general composition is great.

Gooderham
by Shutter-For-Hire

Comment:
I love how you embraced your bright sky.

Beyond Time
by blacjack

Comment:
Hey, now there's something out of the DPC norm. Just creepy enough to be beautiful. I really hope this does well for you.

riley_0204.jpg
by Kelli

Comment:
For such a common practice you don't see this photo very often. Very cool.

In with the wash
by ahjenny

Comment:
While I do like the idea, I have to agree about the composition and lighting.

Composition: Honestly, I don't have a clue how to shoot this concept. If you get closer you might lose too much of the washer. If you pull out too much you can't see inside the washer. DPC loves when you have people in your scenes to help tell a story, so working someone into the shot would have helped.

Lighting: Your whites are pretty yellow. Normal house lights throw out yellow, so change your WB to the indoor setting. If you forget while shooting and are shooting RAW, you can change the WB in post. If you shot JPEG as a last resort you could lower just the yellow saturation in Hue/Saturation.

Also, I'd try getting more light in the washer itself. Clearly the $20 is the focus, but there's some pretty harsh shadows in there. You bumped up to ISO 3200, which puts you at risk for some nasty noisy grain. House lights seem bright in person, but when translated into a photo they're almost always not enough light. You can use ordinary desk lamps for additional light, but make sure to diffuse them with a sheet or something to prevent harshness. You can also bust out the tripod and slow the shutter speed down.

One last thing: When taking photos of things around your house, especially appliances, make sure they're pristine clean. Don't get me wrong, my house is by no means perfectly clean, but DPC will rip you up if you enter something that doesn't gleam and sparkle if it's not a grunge challenge. It has to look new. If it's an Advanced Editing challenge clone out dirt. If it's Basic you're going to have to do some scrubbing.