Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat
by jimika

Comment:
Now why change a good catchline? It's now 'Make the Most of Your Break.' If it ain't broke don't fix it in my view.

This shot could have been much improved with two main changes:
1) Off-centre the main subject - the tip of the KitKat (perhaps showing a length of the stick receding)
2) Get in closer with less background - and retain perfect focus. If focal range is too short, pull out and crop the rest away. There's some nice texture and that there KitKat and it's a shame not see it more clearly.

Lord Of The Wasp's
by ConcreteDonkey

Comment:
:: Hello from the Critique Club ::
............................................................

This is a super-smooth detail of a creature I both admire and loathe. The flat lighting adds a surreal quality and the background is sufficiently blurred so as not to distract. The ground texture is good, but overall the only criticism is the narrow DOF which is possibly something out of your control.

Ideally, if the wasp was quite static you could stop down to something like f6-8 and use a slower shutter speed to gain more depth.

It's a good shot regardless of this and deserved its high placing.

Cratered Moon in the Milky Way
by jdavis

Comment:
:: Hello from the Critique Club ::
............................................................

Firstly, this is a very cute concept, very striking and well designed compositionally. It's well shot, crisp and clear.

As it stands your blueberry looks more like Earth, so you could have titled it 'Cratered Earth in the Milky Way'. I did in fact see what this looked like inversed (hope you don't mind) and it did look spookily like the moon! It may have been an idea to try this and use Hue/Sat to give it the blue hue. Normally, in challenges this kind of treatment would be voted down but given the theme it may have survived in tact.

All the best for future challenges - I'm sure you'll do well.

'Puddle'
by suemack

Comment:
Good capture - nice comp. Colour is a bit drab, so i'd experiment with colour balance to see what you could do to draw people's attention away from the absolute basic colour-from-camera look. Try using Channel Mixer in greyscale mode then adjusting the opacity to see how it affects it. It may look a bit more gritty and meaningful.

Free to Bee
by pogboy4

Comment:
:: Hello from the Critique Club ::
............................................................

This is without doubt a timely, difficult capture. You did well to be there and to frame it. All that's missing is fast shutter speed, as you actually have focused on the bee very well indeed - it's just moveing too fast for your conditions.

Ideally you should set your camera to shutter priority mode and gauge light conditions by observing your camera's histogram and aperture readings. Too fast and you'll get a dark, noisy shot; too slow and you'll get blurred motion.

Experiment on the flower prior to the bee's arrival to see which results work best. You could also try setting it to Image Burst mode here (I don't know the Rebel but I imagine it has some sophisticated settings) which will give you more shots to choose from. Finally, try to use a tripod and select your best flower, then wait! You should get lucky.

OIne final note - a bit more of the flower and less dark space at the top would have improved the composition.

Cheers
Jon

Tulip centre
by train

Comment:
:: Hello from the Critique Club ::
............................................................

This is a lovely image. It has good detail and is well composed. Personally, I have little issue with it.
Flower haters will always ignore it, but those who like the subject matter will enjoy it.

My only points are that:
a) it's a little colourless - which matters only if you want to do well in the challenge (see John Setzler's stunning colour fest on the front page);
b) the centre detail is quite indistinct, and
c) the light is a tad flat inside the flower which reduces textures and definition on the key areas.

Cheers
Jon

Message edited by author 2004-08-11 13:17:33.

Quit Bugging Me
by Konador

Comment:
A very harsh result for an excellent vibe - and unusual for the genre, but as you say it suffered some compression problems which may not have met with super-smooth image requirements of many voters here. It has a real feeling of death/disease about it - nice. :)

Message edited by author 2004-08-11 13:07:02.

Coppertop Carrier
by BikeRacer

Comment:
Very nice idea and a damn cute truck! It's flawed but very nearly went the distance.

Pedestrian and cyclists only
by RUEDISCHMUTZ

Comment:
No vanishing point - doesn't meet the challenge. [1]



Just kidding. :) This is superb - lovely tonal range and great lighting. This building is a great find.

What is the point?
by Amason

Comment:
I like the surreal vibe to this - and, like you say, there's very little point to it, but does it matter?