The battle ... the beginning!!!
by Manolo Navarro

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Hi Manolo...

I particularly like 'chess-scapes' and I have done a few of them myself. I find it intriguing and the pieces come to life when photogrpahed in certain compositions. I think this composition could be improved somewhat by shifting your angle of view to the left just slightly where the pieces in the foreground fall inbetween the pieces facing us in the back. This would possibly create some interesting separation within the image. I believe this photo may have scored below average in the challenge because of the particular perspective you chose. The perspective itself doesn't provide enough impact to sway the voter.

Keep up the good efforts :)

John Setzler

wink
by whiteroom

Comment:
I think the border works here also. I love the square presentations anyway and the border sets that in motion nicely. This is an excellent capture of childhood... It makes me smile :) It would also look good with a slightly heavier black stroke around the image...

Message edited by author 2005-09-24 18:42:35.

Allura
by Napalm Nymph

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Hi Napalm Nymph...

I think the pose in this photograph has some nice potential. There are several items that bother me here... 1 - The composition with the model's arm clipped/cropped out of the frame on the right feels extremely uncomfortable and cramped. 2 - the lighting creates an unnaturally warm background along with an uneven light temperature on her face. One side of her face is cooler than the other. 3 - the final issue is the lack of sharpness, probably due to camera shake or motion blur with the length of exposure you had (1/10") for this photo. This says that you need more available or artificial light to create a situation where you could get a faster shutter speed. At 1/10", a tripod won't help much because if your model moves in the least, it will create the same problem...

Keep up the good efforts :)

John Setzler

Natural
by olimar

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Hi Olimar...

I think this is an excellent composition. The pose and subject choices blend nicely to create a nice sense of warmth and beauty within this image. The only issue that I can't seem to understand myself is the choice for the depth of field. The focus falls off on the right side of your model's face, and I can't really understand the purpose of not having both eyes in focus. Since both of her eyes are playing an equal role in the composition, I don't think it's a good idea to try to shift attention to one or the other. There is not a lot of natural front to rear depth in this photo, so having only a portion of it within depth of field seems a bit strange to me. There is also a significant color shift of skin tones on her face. As I read your notes, I can assume that this was caused by the silver reflector. The light on the left seems cooler than that on the right, which would make sense. You introduced a different color of light into the scene with that reflector. Light bouncing off another surface will take on the color of that surface, in this case it was the silver (cooler colored light).

All in all, this is an excellent presentation... nice work :)

John Setzler

A tree branch
by Antonino

Comment:
Greetings...

I spent about 5 minutes looking at this image trying to determine what it is that you are trying to show me. The only conclusion that I can draw is that you are showing me a photo that meets the challenge. The image appears to have no subject and no coherence. It's a bit to random for my taste to have any significant impact as a photograph.

A Branch of Light
by burlap

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Very nice work... nice lightning photos are always fun :) For me, photos like this one follow the general rules of landscape photography, one of the primary being that you need strong foreground elements. The strip of ground or tree line along the bottom of this image doesn't carry a lot of compositional strength. I realize that the ground is not your subject, but since you included it, it does become part of the composition. You may want to try shots like this at a pre-determined location where you can include a strong foreground... just some food for thought :)

Peace
by msdoubletrouble

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

This photo meets the challenge, but beyond that, it really does nothing for me. I spent a few minutes looking at the image in an effort to find something beyond 'average' and 'meets the challenge' but couldn't find it. You didn't include any of your own thoughts on the image, so I can only assume that 'meeting the challenge' was the only goal here. The score this photo received also seems to reflect that.

Self
by LadeeM

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Hi Tara...

I apologize for being a poor critic of portraits, but I find critique particularly difficult in this arena. I'm not much of a portrait photographer myself, and I don't know most of the finer techniques of lighting and composure. All I can offer is what I feel about the photo in general.

The pose in this photo has it's 'cuteness' and the subject (yourself) seems relaxed enough and confident with the idea. IMO, there are two problems in this portrait that have probably been discussed in any commnents you received on this photo. 1. The light is flat. It would appear that the on camera flash was used, which is a rather poor source of lighting for a portrait. Some of the best portraits you will ever see may be artificially lit, but they won't 'appear' to be in most cases. They will have a natural light feeling to them. 2. As you mentioned, the processing is a bit heavy IMO. There are two levels of 'great' post processing... the kind where you can't tell it was done and the kind where it creates the mood. This one, to me, feels forced. It appears that areas of the image suffered in order to get a problem in exposure (or something else) fixed.

Try experimenting with natural light portraiture... I'm sure you will enjoy it and the results will be excellent :)

Train Tracks To Nowhere
by GolferDDS

Comment:
This is an excellent high contrast image. The contrast adds to the tension and supports the 'unknown destination' theme of the image... nice work :)

A Summer Afternoon
by jenesis

Comment:
Atlanta :) Those fountains are gorgeous at night with the dancing water and lights...