Nine Spirits
by MaxFinger

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I noticed this is only your second entry on DPC, takes a few challenges before you start to get the hang of what works and what doesn't around here.

From a conceptual point of view, I think this is good. It is quite interesting and slightly unusual. However, the execution does let this down quite a lot. It is a very busy image and there is no main subject for the viewer to focus on. Your eyes are drawn to the "incense" and yet this doesn't really feel like it is in the right place.

The rest of the lighting is a bit flat and uninteresting. The image largely looks out of focus, mainly due to the uneven lighting I think.

The composition is way too cluttered and is very tightly framed making it very hard to look at.

As I said, I think the idea was interesting, but the technical aspects and the composition really let this one down.

Girls prefer nine best friends
by mbish7373

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I didn't actually vote on this image (I only managed 20% in the 9 challenge) but had I done so I would likely have given it a 5/6.

I do like the subject and the composition is great. The centered composition with a square crop was certainly the best way to go with this one. The depth of field was a good choice.

For me though the lighting seems a bit flat. I think you could likely have corrected some of this in post processing. I dragged the image into Photoshop CS3 and noticed that an adjustment (using Adobe Camera Raw) in the white balance settings brightened the image up a lot, made the background whiter (without having to adjust exposure, brightness or levels) and overall the image had a bit more depth.

I also agree with Ericwoo about the border, I feel the black doesn't enhance the image at all.

Still, overall I think it was a nice idea that fell a bit flat in the execution.

Forever Different
by BeefnCheez

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I quite like the idea of this but think the execution lets this down. Having browsed others comments, I think there is some good advice.

The composition as Ericwoo says, is a bit too tight. A bit more space around the hands would have helped a lot. Good choice to use the black background. I also agree that the white balance is off on this and a more natural skin colour could have been achieved with some simple editing in Photoshop (or whichever tool you use).

Being a bit picky here, but a manicure may have been a good idea before taking a hand shot, it would have made the image more pleasing to looking at. I don't mean full women's type manicure with polish and all that, just a tidy up of the finger nails.

With some change to set up and some better editing you could probably have increased the score a bit. I doubt however, that this was ever going to be a ribbon winner as it really is lacking the DPC wow factor.

Red Arrows
by joekent

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

It is quite difficult to offer a critique on one of the ribbon winning shots, but I'll have a go since you ticked the box for a critique.

It must have been incredibly difficult to capture this image, so I take my hat off to you as the composition is spot on. It never ceases to amaze me when I see images of formation flying how anyone manages to get these shots. Those planes move quickly!

Choosing to desaturate this image was interesting. I personally am not a fan of selective desaturation and had I voted then it would surely have influenced my vote. I very rarely find it enhances an image and in this case I think a blue sky would have worked so much better. I am however, clearly in the minority on this issue as you still scored above a 7. I wonder if you would however have scored higher overall with a fully saturated image?

Anyway, quite difficult to critique since it is a really well done image.

I'm still standing
by snaffles

Comment:
Hi Susan

Greetings from the Critique Club

It's been a while since I did one of these for you :)

First impression of this image is that it is nice and cheery. The colours are great and it's a really good idea. However, I do feel the composition is somewhat cramped and a bit busy. I'm sure it would have scored higher had there been a little bit more space around the umbrellas, they just somehow feel far too squashed.

From a technical point of view I think the lighting is fine, nothing is really burnt out which could be a strong possibility.

Mainly I think with this image, it is the composition that prevented a score above 5.

Rudbeckia
by korpen

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I thought this was a very striking image when I was voting on the HDR challenge. So much so, I gave it quite a high score, even though I'm not sure HDR really works that well for flowers.

I think the centered composition worked very well for this image and the white against the black background was excellent.

As one of the purposes of using HDR is to bring out the details in the shadows and highlights, I think it would have been nice to see a bit more detail in the centre of the flower, however that is a minor nit pick.

Overall very well done image. I suppose the main reasons it didn't score higher is a) it's a flower and quite often these are not appreciated on DPC b) some people did not think it was HDR.

glasses
by LevT

Comment:
OMG, I LOVE this. It is awesome. Well seen.

Morning Watch, Winter Harbor
by Bear_Music

Comment:
Very lovely

Choc '99
by baronne

Comment:
Oh what a pity this didn't score higher. I guess this totally missed it with the non-UK voters. If anybody else reads this comment, a 99 is a bit of British thing. Two chocolate flakes dipped into the ice-cream as shown above. I guess you got a lot of "did not meet challenge" votes. Way too subtle for people not in the "know". (I am a Brit, so got it)

Grunge
by colorcarnival

Comment:
Loved this one Michelle. Well done.