Quit Smoking
by toddhead

Comment:
That's some wicked smoke. You've done a great job lighting that smoke to bring out all of it's whirly whimsy. Unfortunately, and I'm sure you noticed, you blew out the detail on the match.

I'm not sure what your lighting setup was, but it may have been possible to shield the match from some of that light by putting an object between it and the light source. I'm not saying it would be necessarily easy to shadow just the stick without shadowing the smoke or the tip of the match, but I think it's doable.

The composition is a decent and fairly natural choice. I also like the black and white with just a wee bit of an orange burst. The sharpness seems to fallen a bit behind the match and landed on the smoke. One could argue that the smoke is the intended focus though, especially given your title.

Eat More Leafy Greens
by sfalice

Comment:
The blood red of those leaf veins don't look very appetizing.

Be More Optimistic?
by GeneralE

Comment:
I'll give you credit for a good idea, but obviously there's not really a photo to rate here.

Spend more time with friends
by bspurgeon

Comment:
This might sound harsh, but your "friends" seem a little on the cold side. Two with their back to you and one looking off in the distance. The image title to me suggests there should be some joyous smiles in the photo.

As for the photo itself, it's wonderful. I love that the lady's face on the left is lit up, but it doesn't seem artificially lit, it seems lit from some natural light source (dare I say, sun).

The black and white processing is well done, and was a nice choice given they were probably wearing a varied selection of colors. It also highlights the shadows and wood tones on the dock. It adds a little to the texture of the sky too.

Go Outside... And Take More Pictures.
by Alain

Comment:
Hey, that's one of my goals! This is absolutely one of those photos I would miss, because it's too damn cold outside. It's a great snowy scene, and one's gotta love the vapor coming off of the stream.

I see a fence down there. I wonder if getting down closer you could have made this a little more solid with some creative fence composition. Neh, get back in the warm car and have some cocoa!

Help out a little more.
by mbrutus2009

Comment:
Hightlights seem a little blown, but honestly it doesn't distract from the image. While it looks like you may have had to brighten his face a little in post, I think the exposure here is pretty good.

Curious, did you toss this guy a little help?

WWW in the making
by ajemie

Comment:
I'm a little confused. Is this the spider's resolution or yours? The challenge specifically states "your" resolution. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has told you that.

The focus is pretty good, but does seem a little fuzzy. If I had to guess I'd say this was a crop, and I can't blame you. I wouldn't want to get too terribly close either. Something about those long black legs... *shiver*

Getting Fit
by crik

Comment:
An admirable goal, indeed.

There's nothing really technically wrong with this photo. There's some remnants of something being cut out in the upper left I think, but other than that it's nice and clear, exposure seems good, and I rather like that little glow around all the orange lights. I gotta say though, there's nothing terribly interesting about the photo either. It's a straight on shot of a machine's display.

Pimp My Ride
by mrbig65

Comment:
You've got a lot of work to do to "pimp" that ride! I can see how that would be a nice goal for the new year though.

As for the photo, the first thing that jumps out is the darkening of the sky. I can't say I argue with your thought process on darkening the sky, but the execution could use work. The easiest correction would have been to use a Polarizer or graduated Neutral Density filter while taking the photo. The purpose of that would be to protect the overcast/hazy sky detail from overexposing while you expose correctly for the darker foreground objects.

You've lost a lot of detail in the blacks too, which seems as though you would have done intentionally in your processing. It seems that you've really pushed your contrast slider up or something. The whites on the rocks are completely blown out while right next to it is total darkness. Contrast is good, but make sure you don't lose detail for the sake of contrast.

In 2012 To improve my use of light
by Lawton

Comment:
I don't understand what is in the triangular vase. I want to assume it's lemon juice of some sort, but natural lemon juice isn't that bright. The colors in the image do go well together though, and I'm a sucker for linen. There's just something very comfortable about linen.

When I think "lemon" I think "fresh", and this image doesn't seem very "fresh" to me. The lighting seems artificial, and the lemons seem dirty due to the dark shadowing in the dimples. There's a neat refraction thing happening with the light through the yellow liquid. It would be great to see this image brightened quite a bit with natural light (or at least a lot of soft artificial light) and still somehow keep that effect with the yellow liquid.

It also appears you have two light temperatures. There's a warm light from the left and a cold light from the right. The easiest thing to do there would be to warm up the cold light by shooting through or bouncing off of some kind of orange/yellow filter. That way your light sources are all the same and you can effectively adjust your white balance to the proper temperature.

The composition doesn't have a strong focal point. Everything is kind of just lined up on the same focus depth. I think bringing a couple objects closer to the viewer and letting the background objects get a little DOF blur would add interest. Those glasses certainly are tall and bright enough to hold their own without getting lost in the back of an image. To me the focus here should be where the action is. The "action" to me would be the cutting of the lemon, so that should be brought forward and given more weight.

And while I'm being critical, I don't think you're supposed to peel lemons with a steak knife. Cheers! :)