Spoon over half cone
by Jemifus

Comment:
Welcome to the challenges. For the voting and scores, it helps to remember your purpose in submitting - to learn, instead of to gather scores. Sometimes comments help with that, sometimes not. But you can always learn from having attempted to meet a challenge and then noticing in detail how others approached the topic. Still, you were not last place.

As you have discovered, along with many of us, studio set up shots are not easy. Your subject is complex. Moving the background further away would eliminate some of the distrating variation. Not sure why the spoon appears out of focus, but that does diminish the visual appeal. Consider reading up on all the different factors that affect depth of field besides the f stop.

Under the Pier San Francisco 1951
by Tajhad

Comment:
This really captures a sense of the sparkling play of light in a place expected to be dark. Dynamic range handled well, and just enugh deviation from symmetry for sustained interest.

#1
by ralph

Comment:
Love the expression, sharpness, and general composition, and agree with others that avoiding overprocessing is a big plus here. You have a lovely daughter and captured the moment well. I think the background does pull the eye away from the girl. Not the upper part of the wall, which is indistinct enough to add interest without being distracting (and the color tone there is a nice echo of her shirt). The booth seat has an interesting pattern that does not need to be blurred, but the yellow-green fights with the blue shirt and her eyes, and the magenta/orange elements are too similar to elements in her face. Please don't exaggerate these thoughts into negative comments, as the image is excellent.

If you are using Photoshop, consider as an experiment using a hue-saturation layer for desaturating the greens and yellows about 1/2, then desaturate all colors a bit more, with a broadly feathered mask to protect her eyes, face, and shirt from the desaturations. Then it is easy to adjust the layer opacity so just enough background color remains to be interesting without being distracting. (I took the liberty of trying that and concluded that complete black and white conversion of background looks too contrived, but toning it down keeps a natural feel while allowing the eye to more comfortably study her face). I am no expert at this, and tastes vary, but wanted to pass along the thought. Thanks for allowing us to appreciate the image.

The Family
by bauerfan71

Comment:
Nice lines and lighting. Love all the sense of purity, which could be perfect if done over without the diaper. 7.

Coca Cola Baby
by emorgan49

Comment:
Ouch. Makes me wince. Powerful capture here.

Velvet Staghorn
by sherpet

Comment:
I like the macro approach, with detail near the edge of the contrast between orange tones and yellow-greens.

Sleepy's
by muur88

Comment:
Love the juxtaposition. With the person being far from horizontal, consider a portrait crop to remove the For Rent sign, but keep a good part of that intersting red door.

Pelican ACTION !!!
by andrewt

Comment:
Sharp while retaining huge sense of motion. Needs to be in a photography textbook as a great example of "freezing" motion to put emphasis on it. Tones balance well, and this dynamic image keeps the eye busy for a long time.

Feathers by Frost
by dtremain

Comment:
These frosty fronds are hard to capture so well. Don't ask me how I know that. 8.

Ethereal
by Qart

Comment:
Simplicity of white fabric and hidden hair, purity of light, and complexity of lipstick. Excellent image.