Walk to school
by clickodak

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that nearly meets the challenge

I can see where you’re going with this Marcel but it doesn’t quite get there for a couple of reasons. Your subject has a full tonal range which is what you want for a ‘normal’ image, however, for the challenge brief you would have been better to specifically choose a subject with a narrower tonal range. Your exposure is not helping you either, if you had underexposed it you would have had data in all areas that you could have manipulated further to reduce the contrast, as it is your sky and various small areas of the image are overexposed and completely lacking any information that could be manipulated. Even a recomposition excluding the sky and less exposure could have got you nearer to a lower contrast result but thanks for your brave attempt.

Walk to school
by clickodak

Comment by tnun:
thank you. my alma mater some long while back.

Duck Lake
by clickodak

Comment by Cyrilda:
If it were me taking this shot I would have walked around the edges of the water or at least walked out on the little dock before I took my shot. This meets the challenge perfectly, the color is beautiful with great contrast. The focus is good. It only lacks composition and emotion. I like to walk all around my subject and invision each angle in a box. You had a perfect opportunity to create a real piece of art with this photo even in minimal edit. I give a 7 for this.

Conjunction Grapefruit - Wood Lemon Squeezer
by clickodak

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that fully meets the challenge

A great idea Marcel and well executed too. I like your composition it works well, the grapefruit looks delicious. I like also that you have used a wooden utensil it has so much more interesting character than plastic or metal, the wood grain and the way the juices are soaking into the wood work really well. Your lighting is good, the focus and DOF are good too. I don̢۪t have a problem with the white background its neutrality enables us to focus all our attention on the main subject. Another excellent entry Marcel, well done, keep up the good work.

Winter Birds flying south
by clickodak

Comment by MeMex2:
perfect shutter speed! great shot.

Conjunction Grapefruit - Wood Lemon Squeezer
by clickodak

Comment by tnun:
mnn. I like grapefruit. it seems to salivate at the thought of my liking it.

Walk to school
by clickodak

Comment by hahn23:
I'll be interested in hearing why you feel this is low contrast. This is good contrast... near optimal contrast.

No Trespassing
by clickodak

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An appealing image that fully meets the challenge

An excellent image Marcel! I like your composition, DOF, focus viewpoint and most importantly the timing to show the suns warming effect on the cold metal as it transforms these surfaces into something very appealing and detailed. A lovely additional element is the inverted scene in the drops. You have good exposure and details throughout the image having avoided blowing the background highlights. The suns rays through the tree are another very appealing element. I have assumed the soft focus background is purely through choice of aperture and not post-processing gaussian blur? I only ask because the immediate foreground looks equally uniform in its softness. Anyway, this is a very strong image Marcel that shows good creative vision and technical handling, a very positive progression, very well done.

No Trespassing
by clickodak

Comment by jomari:
Well done. I love the drips. Top 3.

Conjunction Grapefruit - Wood Lemon Squeezer
by clickodak

Comment by Cyrilda:
Nice shot.8