Untitled #6
by Bud

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 5/6/5
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:7/6
Presentation: 6
Total: 5.9
Vote: 6

Remarks: -

Welcome to the Woods
by ozerad

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story:7/6/7
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:6/6
Presentation: 6
Total: 6.2
Vote: 6

Remarks: -

R
by pointandshoot

Comment:
and it's composed by weight (dark vs. light), which, I imagine,
is not an obvious option given that the points of interest
are left quite literally

along the margins.

Face Music
by posthumous

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 6/5/6
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/-/6
Aesthetics/Technical:8/6
Presentation: 6
Total: 6.1
Vote: 6

Remarks: a multi-tiered whirlpool of drawn colour and tone, kempt by wisps and disturbed by shafts of exquisite light. Scale-like patterns are both forming and dissolving, not without direction and definition, while a myriad of lines appear as drawn funnels of a gaseous whole, exhibiting sectional patterns in flux. A slate middle ground overlays much of the image, except where the most gorgeous cyans shine through suggesting a virtual space underlying the background. Where the motion becomes chaotic, it is imbued as if with blood, writhing and rising from an ambiguity of somber, muddied tones forward, toward the viewer, falling to air.

A less ambiguous minutia appears to be figurative, as an Easter egg that looks like a worm or a portion of a thin branch bathing in twilight. I'd say "hurrah", if only there was another image like this one (or several) as part of a larger exhibit that would give the one in front of me a context.

As it is, I cannot, in good conscience, attempt to assign a value to this photo that isn't quite arbitrary.

From the water
by Rando D300

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 6/7/6
Composition/perspective/manner: 4/5/5
Aesthetics/Technical:6/6
Presentation: 5
Total: 5.6
Vote: 6

Remarks: a magical subject which benefits greatly from the wisp of illuminated spray above its cusp. I've taken this image into PS and flipped it horizontally to place the darker tones (the weight) to the right. I proceeded to crop two thirds of the area above the wisp and approx. one third of the waterfall, between rock and margin. I'd consider the same experiment, just to see what gives.

ocean view
by laurie241

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 5/6/5
Composition/perspective/manner: 7/6/5
Aesthetics/Technical:6/6
Presentation: 6
Total: 5.8
Vote: 6

Remarks: -

Premonition
by neophyte

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 6/6/5
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:6/7
Presentation: 6
Total: 6
Vote: 6

Remarks: If the sky provided a little drama as well, it would, IMO, help this shot tremendously. A shame, really, to be limited by the parameters of a Basic Editing challenge.

Green Power
by dwainasaurus

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 6/6/7
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/6/4
Aesthetics/Technical:3/5
Presentation: 6
Total: 5.4
Vote: 5

Remarks: a humorous and imaginative setup. The lighting could, IMO, be more discriminating and instead understate the floor (?) surface, proliferating the subject(s).

Get up and fly!
by Windtale

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 7/6/7
Composition/perspective/manner: 6/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:6/6
Presentation: 6
Total: 6.2
Vote: 6

Remarks: while the extensive negative space supports the magic quite effectively in this image, this becomes less credible when perceived as due to excessive contrast as opposed to lighting. My view is enforced by the complete absence of relation between hands and head, as well as by the magician's hair dissolving into the expanse. His right hand, particularly, appears lopped and somewhat severed compositionally. The lighted, visible elements, on the other hand, are a feast of depth, tone and detailed texture, showing no evidence of defects.

After studying this entry for a good while, I conclude that I can easily embrace its underlying and original idea, its compelling execution, but I cannot, easily, shed the sense that the ordering of the four points of interest (where the light is) unhinges itself by a hand somewhat stagnantly afloat (top left) and alienated from the central circle of suspense.

The photo, in my view, derives much power from the utterly convincing facial expression, the bundled concentration it communicates as well as by the direction of light following it.

Weeeeee.....My Little Ghost Having Fun :D
by tinchen

Comment:
Energy/Range/Story: 6/6/6
Composition/perspective/manner: 5/6/6
Aesthetics/Technical:4/4
Presentation: 5
Total: 5.3
Vote: 5

Remarks: not a postcard splendour by any stretch, but the casual exposure and overall focus could, IMO, be tolerated as deliberate, given the blurred, mid-air trail of the subject and the crazed energy it radiates. I speculate that a more exacting exposure combined with increased contrast would make for a more highly charged sense while appealing to a broader gamut of tastes. I'd also consider other options for cropping (excluding all elements that do not contribute to the overall composition).