Tattoed Purity
by bangwin

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

I think the comments you received do a fair job of summing up the results of this image. I'm in agreement with those who think it should be tack sharp. Soft focus could be good, but this one isn't sharp enough to get away with that. The idea and composition are both excellent. I like the curves and abstract nature of the image. I think this theme also calls for some more dramatic light and some more contrast in the image. In my opinion, this type of image does very well as either a high key study or a high contrast study. Both may be worth exploring on your part :)

John Setzler

Out of the Ordinary
by Sunshine86

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

This image has an interesting abstract feel to it. It's a nice technique-drive image with a twist of surrealism at the same time :) The color play also works ok here. I'm not as keen on the blue fade from the center of the image to the right side. I believe you could probably work this image into something a little stronger in the realm of colors. Blue is not as complementary of red as green would be. In a nutshell, I really like the idea and have actually been thinking about something along these lines for my own portfolio.

As for the challenge, I notice that the score on this image is OK but not outstanding. The theme of 'shapes' is not really the dominant theme of this image. When one thinks of shapes, the general view would be shapes with definition, like a triangle, rectangle, circle, or diamond. The shapes that dominate this image are random curves, which none-the-less, are shapes. The feeling I get from this image is more along the lines of texture than shape probably.

I think this subject/technique is well worth some further experimentation... keep up the good work :)

John Setzler

Shape of my Heart
by unicum

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

This photo meets the challenge with the heart shape, but I believe it would have scored a lot better if that shape was a larger part of the composition/theme of the photo. This is a technique that I particularly enjoy and you have done it well here. I can't really offer you much suggestion for improvement other than making the theme/subject of the photo more dominant in the frame...

Excellent work :)

John Setzler

Only my mother are left to take care of me
by Dufus

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Future requests for in-depth critique will require that you have filled out your photographer's comments when you submit the photo. This will be beneficial to you if the person giving the critique has some additional insight into your photograph...

I don't believe the hand motion effect shown here is adding impact to the image. It does demonstrate an interesting technique, but I believe the photo would be stronger without that. A sweeping motion of the hand could have possibly produced something a bit more interesting to me, but the double hand image just makes me ask 'why?' I don't understand the intent or purpose of it. The duration of the exposure to make this effect has possibly made the image display motion blur in places where you don't want it also.

The subject is very strong, but I think some additional execution would be nice :)

John Setzler

Motherly Frog
by tolovemoon

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

I believe this photo meets the challenge, but the subject itself is rather weak overall. The lighting and composition don't offer much inspiration. There isn't any particular technique applied here that separate the subject from the environment, which is quite busy. I understand you were probably trying to create the natural environment of the frogs, but it just doesn't work out well in this photo. Your depth of field is also a bit shallow or your focus point is off a bit. The use of figurines in challenges has proven to be a huge undertaking when it comes to getting a good score on the photo. In general, they seem to be shunned.

John Setzler

Second Family
by madison461

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

I think this photo meets the challenge well. I believe that it probaly didn't score particularly well for several reasons. It is a good candid photo of a mother and child, but there doens't seem to be any particular 'hook' to draw the disconnected viewer into the theme. The photo also appears to be underexposed. Your monitor may be a bit on the dark side possibly, but the image is rather flat and lacks good contrast. The subjects' hair color also feels quite odd. I run into situations like this with blondes when I'm shooting sports in some of my local gymnasiums. Mercury vapor lights tend to make blone hair turn green, which may be the case here as well. You may have had to do some desaturation to correct that, but I'm not sure. Some of those details aren't included in your own description, so I'm just making guesses based on my own experience :)

John Setzler

Koru in bronze
by kari1

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

I hate that this photo didn't score higher than it did. I'm gonna take a leap and say that the subject is too abstract for the general population. I love the image. The image is all about shape in it's purest form. The image is nothing but shape, and it's very well done. I find that when people are asking me what they are looking at, they generall don't like the image. However much that sucks, it's a fact of life around here. The only time I have ever seen abstracts do particularly well on dpchallenge is when the challenge calls for abstract. You did a great job here of making shape the dominant theme of your image.

John Setzler

The Darth Invasion
by tshanhon

Comment:


This image doesn't really require a critique. It scored very well and didn't receive any negative comments. I think it's an excellent image for the Pattern challenge and I wouldn't do anything differently and can't suggest any improvement. Nice work :)

John Setzler

Message edited by HBunch - removed CC status.

Inevitability
by Salar

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

This photo seems to meet the challenge, but it does so in a more obscure way than the general public might imagine. Cut and dried interpretations of the challenge, unfortunately, tend to do better in most cases. Your photo shows a conceptual pattern of falling dominos rather than a physical pattern of repetition within the image itself.

This photo also feels a bit stark to me. I know that lots of people like to see pure white. Photographers seem to like this as well. For me, it feels too unnatural. It feels almost as unnatural as pure blacks where a subject looks like it is floating in space. That's just some food for thought :) Pure whites and blacks don't exist as freely in nautre as some photos would have us believe :)

THROUGH THE SCREEN DOOR.
by CONRAD

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

This photo has excellent pattern and texture qualities, but the overall subject choice is probably too weak to generate much appreciation in a competition. Compositionally, there is room for some improvement. Since this is a setup photo, there are a couple things you may have done to improve the overall impact. I would have tried to position his eyes squarely in the center of one of the openings. This photo is also a good candidate for a black and white. The color isn't really creating any significant impact, and removing it would force the viewer to spend more time considering the texture and patterns within the image :)

John Setzler