IMG_9085.jpg
by strangeghost

Comment:
Wow John. What a success story

The Pearly White Gate
by RulerZigzag

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Interesting image, I could imagine seeing it as a book jacket for a murder mystery book.

I like how even though it's a colour image, it looks like a black and white. The composition is good, I am a fan of negative space, although I perhaps would have liked the lone figure to be a bit further to the right, but that's a miniscule nit pick and simply my personal preference. I like the silhouetted figure with the strong backlighting, it's very effective. Also the complete darkness adds to the sense of mystery.

Tying to analyse why this did not score higher is difficult, I think it's a well composed interesting image, but I suppose it perhaps lacks the WOW factor that is typically associated with DPC free study challenges. I would have expected it to be more like 6.0.

Distanced
by Melethia

Comment:
See Deb, scores be damned. Look what you got! The pyellow :)

I also couldn't find the action when I googled it.

Cabrillo Boulevard
by Germaine

Comment:
great foggy scene, but I'm so not with you about the days getting shorter :) I love the fact we are still seeing daylight at 10.00 pm. It will be soon enough when it goes dark at 3.00 pm.

Snapshooter
by Art Roflmao

Comment:
Great stuff. He really looks very serious about it!

Divided by oil . . . ruined by jpeg
by ineedauniquename

Comment:
Title hurts this one. However, I thought it was rather good and liked it quite a lot, so sorry it didn't score higher!

Golden gate at morning
by gaurawa

Comment:
Gosh the light in this is stunning

Celebration
by juliejold

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I must say I was rather expecting to see a lot of firework images in July Free Study given the recent holidays in North America.

I know fireworks are incredibly difficult to shoot well, I have tried only once and gave up as i was getting nowhere, so kudos to you for persevering.

To score highly in a Free Study with a firework image, the technical aspects need to be completely spot on. In the case of this image, the technicals are lacking a bit which is why I think you ended up with a 5.3.

Typically a low ISO setting (say 100), small aperture (High F number) and slowish shutter speed will give you a crisp clear image (of course, using a tripod). The settings you have used tend to leave the image quite blurry and thus the impact is lost. So, from a technical point of view, I think you image is suffering a bit. The fireworks are blown out in places and are quite blurry.

Mostly I think it takes a bit of practice to get good firework images, but the opportunity to shoot them doesn't present itself too often.

Sideshow
by RKT

Comment:
9 from me! Lovely image.

Username: Orme (The Great Orme - Llandudno, Wales)
by JamesA

Comment:
This is a beautiful image, although as Andi has said, I do think it would benefit from a slightly different crop. More sky/more sea so the horizon isn't bang in the middle.

Way to go on not getting any 1,2 or 3 votes.