Dragonfly wings
by Mark

Comment by danica22:
awesome pic!!!

Counterintuitive
by Mark

Comment by danica22:
nice patterns and cool idea...

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by livitup:
Greetings from the critique club! :)

First impression: Interesting.

Relation to the Challenge: As others have commented, yellow and blue are not complementary colors. I won't beat that horse any further into the ground. I do think that it's an interesting study of colors, and the refraction inside the crystal makes an interesting juxtoposition of colors.

Composition: As is usually the case with abstract photos there's no naturally clear focal point, so it's up to the photographer to provide one. That's something that you really didn't do here. When I first looked at the picture my eyes were immediatley drawn to the two marks in roughly the center of the image (I imagine they are manufacturer's marks that are refracting as well). Since there are two identical ones right next to each other, my eyes hop back and forth between the two. Next, I'm drawn to the strong vertical line down the center of the photo, which leads me down to the bottom, and back up the side where the edge of the candlestick makes the colors appear to change. Follow that line up to the top, down the other side, and we're back at the beginning again. Whew! A good example of a strong focal point in an abstract/macro is this shot from istockphoto. Notice how, when you look at it, your eye is "grounded" on the white oval at the top right. You may search around, but that's always your resting place. Finally, the distortion, which shows up as a bright white spot, at the top of your photo is very distracting, and probably could have been cropped out.

Background: Not much to say here, as the background was integral in making the shot, and you did a great job of that. I might have moved the paper up a little bit, so that the color went all the way to the top of the shot, or just cropped down to remove the part with the white background.

Photographic Technique: The shot is lit well. Exposure is good, and the edges of the crystal are in sharp focus. Good job! This would have been a hard subject to light, and technically you didn't quite pull it off. There are mutliple reflections of lights, equipment, etc. that really don't belong in the shot. I'm sure that if you had played around with different light sources and positions, you might have been able to eliminate those a little bit.

Post-Processing: You don't say what you did here, but I imagine that you didn't need to do much. This is the part of the process I still struggle most with myself, so I'm not totally sure what to suggest, but one thing I do notice is that there is grey mottling of the yellow paper. Try a tool like NeatImage, which would do wonders for clearing up some of the JPEG noise and artifacts that are present in your version.

Overall Opinion: I'm sticking with "Interesting." :) It's a shot with potential, but with the really high reflectivity of the crystal it's going to be VERY hard to get it just right. I think you did well, and your final score reflects that. Good job.

Finally, I'd like to ask you to consider critiquing the critique. :) Just as you're here to learn about photograpy, I'd like to learn about giving better critiques. If you have any comments, even if it's just "Thanks!" please drop me a PM.

Good Luck with your future entries!

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by madison461:
This is actually an example of Refraction. Fragmentation is what is done (and undone) to a hard drive, ie: defrag.

Cool idea and pretty good technical result.

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by Sucho:
As the complementary color of blue is not yellow but orange, it would have been better imho if the yellow color had been orange instead. Otherwise it is a good study of symmetry, reflections and textures.

Skyward Maple
by Mark

Comment by mandyturner:
*Critique Club*

Sometimes when I shoot for a challenge I dismiss the first idea that pops in my head. I do this because more than likely it was also the first idea that someone else thought of too. In challenges like these on DPC, there are soooo many entries you really need something unique to do well. After so long voters get tired of the same image over and over. I think that is the main reason for your score.

Your comments: "I simply walked up to a maple tree, lined up the sun behind it, and snapped this shot. pretty simple" Maybe that says it all right there. woutji has some great suggestions. Take time to think about what you want to photograph. How do I want it to look?

When taking a picture of a common item, make your picture so different it is like seeing it for the first time.

I hope this was helpful

Mandy

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by Younger:
This is a cool shot for this competition. I would like to see the whole subject to see what it is.

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by persimon:
Interesting perspective, but yellow needs to be orange to keep with the challenge.

Fragmentation
by Mark

Comment by Elaine:
Interesting shot, but blue and yellow are not complimentary colors.

Skyward Maple
by Mark

Comment by rwouthuis:
Mark, I think you have a good start for this challenge. It would have also fit in the recent perspective challenge. A couple of things to try that may make the photo a little more dynamic:
- The main trunk branches out right in the centre of the photo. While the branches do help to take the eye out from the centre point, an off-centred orientation of the point might make a more pleasing composition. Maybe even combine that with a portrait layout instead of a landscape layout and see what you get.
- Try different lighting. For example, try early morning or near sunset for a warmer feeling photo. The other bonus to that might be a nicer contrasting colour for the sky. The lightin the way it is gives a bit of a washed out sky instead of an eye popping background.

As for the score, don't worry about the score. Ranking high is a great thing, but not the only thing. There are many factors to the score, including peoples perception of how a photo meets the challenge, photo quality and voter mood. Keep clickin'.