Chauvigny
by gipomontesanto

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

A good subject to photograph and definitely worth exploring. The monotone works well given the subject. A bit oversharpened which appears to have created some haloing. I'm not sure if using levels AND brightness-contrast may have been necessary. (Typically you do your contrast adjustment with curves or levels and then leave it.)

The person in the bottom right anchors the image well. It would be nice to see more detail there but its minor. (I imagine that a large size version would show more detail).

Overall, a good shot that works well for this challenge. Well done!

Join us comrade! The future is bright and our shoehorns are many!
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
Strangely, your shoehorn is not shoehorned into this challenge. It is really quite high contrast. Now if only arm wasn't so hairy...

:)

World War II - Officer's Respite
by yakatme

Comment:
I think a little different hue would help see the items a little better. I'd also like to see the original to compare.

At Day's End
by Lydia

Comment:
Congrats on your second blue. Interesting that your first was for "Cowboy Games". Seems like you and the cowboys get along. :)

Does it hurt?
by catnapper

Comment:
I'm glad I came back to view this one. I knew there had to be a story and its certainly a good one. Thank you for the photo and the story.

Eagle Nebula, M16
by CyMaN

Comment:
Well...you are now on the front page. Sorry your ribbon was delayed. Really enjoyed your entry and I was one of the 70 people to give it a 10. (I don't get the goofs who gave this a 3 or less at all).

A Scottish Sunset
by dd1989

Comment:
I really wouldn't argue that the sun is a star because the other part of the description mentions showing a night sky. If I can see the sun I don't really consider that night time.

Like you said however, the sun isn't in the shot so we are at twillight. Its not day, and its not night. Its kinda both...or neither. Much like water at 0 degrees celsius can be said to be melting or freezing. Giving you the benefit of the doubt I marked it as a 5. Not great but not bad.

Had there been a more interesting silhouette and this was a free study? Easily an 8 plus however. The sky is wonderful. If you have another shot like this I would encourage you to enter it in this month's free study.

Sitting on the edge of the big blue
by dewdodesign

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Interesting shot with a nice background. Generally speaking, your subject should be looking into the frame and not out of it. Your eye is drawn to where they are looking and in this case, the viewer is dumped off the edge of the picture rather quickly.

Really hard scene to expose well. The whites are overexposed and the blacks are underexposed which takes away a lot of the detail. A tighter crop might show more detail however. (Something to check out)

Keep in mind with depth of field that the difference in f/8 and f/4 isn't going to be apparent in the background. f/8 might have allowed you to get the whole bird in focus. f/8 is also ususually your sharpest aperture.

Here is a depth of field calculator:
//www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

So to demonstrate what I am saying quickly. With your lens at 200 mm and f/4 at 20 feet you get 0.45 feet of good focus. (so about 5.4 inches). With f/8 it goes to 0.9 feet. (about 10.8 inches). Your background would still be blurred with f/8 since it is well outside the zone of focus.

Natural Beauty
by jpochard

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Looking at your exposure settings I see you were at ISO 800. You could have shot this at f/8 and 1/100 of a second to get the ISO down to about 200 which would have had less noise.

The plant is an interesting find and worth exploring. It looks like the lighting was a bit harsh however so coming up with a way to light this more evenly may have helped.

As mentioned in the comments this does look like you've applied selective desaturation. Based on your editing steps thats not the case however it does appear that way. Perhaps increasing the saturation for the greens may have helped.

Overall? Not a bad shot just not a great shot. Floral shots are a really tough sell as they show up quite often especially at this time of year. (Not saying that you shouldn't shoot them they just need even more care to make them have thw wow factor)

Memories Live
by JerseyGenie

Comment:
Interesting take on the challenge. I'd personally like to see more of the left hand boot. I'd also like to see a far less prominent border as it really draws the eye away from the elements in the frame.