yellow tulips
by rjgardner

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

Hi RJ....

Flowers are always a good subject for 'cliche'. There aren't many photo sites online where you can't find a gallery full of them, so you meet the challenge very well with this shot :)

Your composition is good... choosing to NOT center these flowers seems like a good approach to this shot. The perspective of the brick wall also adds a nice touch to the shot...

The finishing score of 4.7 on this photo may be telling you something. I don't really see anything technically wrong with the photo, so it must be an issue of visual impact that held your score down a little. The essence of the 'cliche' challenge was to make a GREAT photograph of a common subject. In your photo, you managed the common subject quite nicely, but the visual impact of the shot is only average. There isn't an aspect of this particular flower photo that makes it stand out and stand above the other flower shots that are deemed to be 'cliche'...

Keep up the good effort :)

John Setzler

This is fun!
by jenarom

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

Hi Jenarom...

This is an excellent choice of subjects for the cliche challenge. Children are photographed as much as any subject I can think of. I personally wish I had children of my own to photograph. Being single, I think I'm missing out on wonderful photo opportunities. I get to photograph my niece and nephew occasionally, and recently did some digital portraits of them for my mom for her livingroom wall... Those are here if you want to take a look:

//www.pbase.com/jmsetzler/portraits

I like the composition of your portrait.. the diagonals of the swing chains and the right side orientation of the child create a good perspective for the viewer in this shot :)

It looks like you were dealing with some fairly direct sunlight in this image as well. I don't know if it would have been an improvement or not, but firing the flash in this shot would have removed the shadows from the child's face. Fill flash is used in daylight situations to accomplish this. My Sony 707 does a nice job of this with the flash set on low power mode and I use it quite frequently for this task...

Keep up the good work :)

John Setzler

Matballs, my recipe...
by pitsaman

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

This photo makes me hungry and I'm sitting here at lunch time telling you how nice this looks instead of eating lunch :)

I think your lighting work on this shot is pretty good, but it may be just a tad bright on the top part of the frame... The shadows cast toward the bottom look fine though...

Compositionally, I would have probably made a few minor changes that could possibly create more impact... First of all, I would have spaced the saucer and the meat tray slightly farther apart to give each a little more breating room. They are a bit close together. Secondly, I would have staggered them slightly.. I would have moved the meat tray up and the saucer down just a little to create a bit more of a diagonal composition rather than a side by side view.

Another possible compositional change would have been to photograph at a little more of an angle rather than straight on. This would create a stronger sense of depth in the image...

With that being said, I think I am going to have lunch now :)

Keep up the good work!

John Setzler

Twilight of Idols
by magnetic9999

Comment:
excellent perspective :) I think the shadows on the columns add a nice element to this photo.. great shot :) - setzler

Half Mast
by boyte1

Comment:
very nice work :) The composition on this shot is excellent... please excuse any nasty remarks you may get for photographing a flag and keep on photographing it :) - setzler

Regret
by arnit

Comment:
I love the composition on this... I don't know how dark her skin really is but it looks quite dark... the clarity of this shot is most excellent... great shallow depth of field as well.. nice shot :) - setzler

Incarceration
by dimitrii

Comment:
this is a very interesting use of perspective.. i really like the depth of field bringing the rear part of the handcuffs into focus.. that is very unique :) great shot! - setzler

Spindles
by justine

Comment:
I like this choice of perspective... the black and white option here really accents the shapes, lines, and contrasts... great shot :) - setzler

SoBe Slant
by Jeileen

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

I think I can understand your 'cliche' aspect of this photo without much trouble... flowers and cityscapes are quite common subject, even when they are combined this way.

There are a few elements of this photo that need some improvement. I'm not sure of the details of your particular camera, so I don't know how much control you actually have with the exposure. First of all, the image is a bit busy. As I view, I can't decide if I want to look at the flowers or the traffic. The car lights behind the flowers make it quite difficult to let my eye settle on the flowers. The image also lacks sharpness. This may be created by a handheld shot in low light. A tripod and a timer release shot usually help this problem quite a bit.

Keep up the effort :)

John Setzler

Heat
by Alecia

Comment:
his is a beautiful photo.. the color and abstract 'perspective' is excellent.. I had originally given this an 8 but i think it's worth a 10 after absorbing it a little... great shot :) = 10 - setzler