When is Daddy coming home?
by mandyturner

Comment:
mandyturner I presume?

Just wanted to drop a note that I love this processing. Great old-time classic feel, and a fantastic expression.

Comfort from the Dark
by sir_bazz

Comment:
Hey.. you have the same two ribbons as me now..

Want to fight over who gets the blue?

*sniff*.. bye poor Woody.. I shall avenge thee!

Message edited by author 2005-11-23 02:34:24.

Rub a Dub Dub
by jenesis

Comment:
Great placing. Loved this image. If I had voted, I'd have voted pretty high, but I don't vote on challenges I enter :)

Local Pelican
by sir_bazz

Comment:
The Sigma lens you used here is the one I'm hoping to have by next Spring.. you'll have to let me know how it does for you. I've heard that it can be a bit soft.

Mama On Alert
by Gallatin

Comment:
Glad you think that car doors are safety where Grizzlies are concerned.

(ps. they're not)

Nice shot though.

Our pride and joy
by sir_bazz

Comment:
awww. I miss this being on the front page of the *ist Ds. So sweet.

Magnificent Bubbles !
by Wilson Low

Comment:
Ah.. the curse of a fantastic abstract work as a DPC challenge entry.

This is easily a 6.5 - 6.8 type shot (the shallow DOF really hurts this I think, keeping it from 7 in my mind), but people here *hate* abstracts.. it's always been the way. If you can, look up Dax and check out her work.. stunning color abstracts that just don't ever get the voting that they deserve.. and you can see it with your shot.

This site is a one-trick pony site, really. Voters are looking for, and want, only one thing. The true challenge, if you want to ribbon, is giving them that thing... which is usually something a lot of people really couldn't care to photograph.

Rolling Stones
by Hungaro

Comment:
Hello, and greetings from the Critique Club. The critique you are about to recieve is tailored for DPC challenges alone, and is not intended to be seen as an artistic critique per se.

Initial Thoughts

Nice shot.. where did you find boulders like that?

Composition / Content

Compositionally, I'm not sure that having the stones so heavily on the one side works as well as having them more centered, in this case, would be. Something to try anyway. I love how you give the illusion that these really are huge boulders, when in fact they are little stones. Good job there. Another suggestion would be to shoot the stones from a higher angle, to eliminate the background. This would allow you to use the shadows more as an element.

Background

I personally don't like the background here.. the dark line of the hills really distracts from your subject and the perspective. Also, the sky is very noisy, and that really hurts a DPC challenge entry.

Camera Work / Technical

Nice control of most of the technical aspects. A good exposure, nice depth of field, good focus. If you had a dSLR with more lens options, I'd suggest trying to shallow up the depth of field so that the last rock is just going out of focus, and the background totally out of focus, but I'm not sure how the F707 handles elements like that. You could experiment though. If you're unsure, depth of field is controlled by these aspects: focus distance to the subject, focal length (amount of zoom), and aperature. The closer you can focus to a subjet, the shallower the DOF. The more zoomed in you are, the shallower, and the larger the aperature, the shallower. So a combination of all three of these elements in different adjustments are what you can experiment with.

Digital Processing

No information given here, so I cannot comment on what you've done. I can however, point out that the noisy sky probably led to much lower scores, along with the darker spots. However, with perspective being an open challenge, there was nothing you could have done about the spots.

Fits the Challenge

Definitely fits, but could have been a little stronger with a couple of compositional and/or point of view changes to make the shot a little more dynamic and clean.

My Opinion of the Photo

An excellent idea, I love that you've convinced the viewer that these stones are much larger than they are, an excellent form of forced perspective. Although I don't like the background, it's a pretty good photograph, and got a deservingly high score. Good job, and good luck in future challenges.

Gulliver
by chipuc

Comment:
Hello, and greetings from the Critique Club. The critique you are about to recieve is tailored for DPC challenges alone, and is not intended to be seen as an artistic critique per se.

Initial Thoughts

Funny.. but I think the perspective could have been worked on a little better.

Composition / Content

You've got a pretty good composition going on here.. tells the story well enough. I like the scene, but as some have said, the bases the figures are on just pull you out of the moment a little too much. Some slight cropping work would have fixed that (and seeing more of the cat's head wouldn't have hurt either.. feels really cramped).

Background

The cat is the background, and it works.

Camera Work / Technical

Now this is where I personally think you could have done it differently and perhaps scored higher as a result. I really don't like the shallow depth of field here, and the fact that the "lilliputians" as it were, are not in focus.. at least, not for this scene as it is. They are just too close to the cat for it to really work. I think, where we closer to the figures, (looking over their shoulders as it were), and the cat was a little farther away.. this depth of field idea would be excellent. As it is, I just don't feel it, and it just doesn't look right to me.. and, I suspect, many of the voters. Your exposure is a *touch* over-exposed, but not a lot. Nothing is really blown-out, but there is a distinct lack of detail in some areas of the cat's fur. Where you do have focus it is nice, but in this particular image, having the toys in focus may have helped as well.. but I truly think a slightly different point of view would have been even better.

Digital Processing

No information given for this area, so I cannot comment.

Fits the Challenge

It does fit the challenge, but the perspective you were going for (forced perspective), isn't exactly the one voters were looking for, and that may also have hurt you a little. As I said, get in closer to the figures, so it's like we're looking over their shoulders, and have the cat a little further off.. and it might have been a stronger perspective shot.

My Opinion of the Photo

It's a fun shot.. shows great ingenuity, and I applaud the idea. As a DPC entry though, it's not the strongest. Keep up the creativity and work on the technical areas, and we'll see you in the higher echelon soon. Good luck in future challenges.

Cat on a hot tin roof
by jswan

Comment:
Hello, and greetings from the Critique Club. The critique you are about to recieve is tailored for DPC challenges alone, and is not intended to be seen as an artistic critique per se.

Initial Thoughts

I think this suffered from a confusion with "point of view" and "perspective", among a few other, minor, things.

Composition / Content

Not the strongest composition in my book, the leg and paw don't really have any dynamic to them. They're just.. there, to be as lay as possible. There doesn't seem to be any real rhyme or reason for it, other than just photographing a part of an animal that one rarely focuses on.

Background

A nice fade out with your depth of field, the background is nicely out of focus and soft and doesn't interfere.

Camera Work / Technical

While you have some blown-out highlights, the general exposure is pretty good. Your focus is a little soft I think, and the depth of field a little *too* shallow in the fur. f/3.5 or f/4 might have helped this.

Digital Processing

No information given, so I cannot comment on this area. I will say that the use of flat colors and darks isn't very pleasing for my part.

Fits the Challenge

I think this is where you suffered the most, second only to a rather uninteresting subject for the most part. For me, this is a confusion of "point of view" with perspective. That is.. you've shown a subject from a different and sort of unique point of view.. but there's no real visual perspective shown. You don't have any leading lines, or vanishing points, and nothing in the image really shows a strong feeling of depth, or representation of depth. (The only thing really is the other paw being out of focus, but it seems more gratuitous than being an actual element). While still technically a "perspective".. the DPC voters were just looking for something entirely different.

My Opinion of the Photo

While it's cute, and has some nice technical elements, I just don't have any personal connection here. The subject matter isn't all that interesting, and it doesn't really have the "wow" factor that is so important in DPC challenges. A good try, and I like the "out-of-the-box" thinking. Good luck in future challenges.