Light in the Night
by riley

Comment by svstoltz:
It is interesting, pretty, mysterious. A little confusing. Lacking a human connection

Light in the Night
by riley

Comment by e301:
This verges on the feeling that there are two frames in one here - the regression of light in the road, and the cityscape alongside it seem almost completely disconnected - an intersting dynamic, though one senses that its more by chance here. A few things make it too complex an image for DPC - the strong vertical black thing, the slightly out of ordinary composition - the dynamic pulls us both to the top right and the bottom left where htat amber streetlight echoes the regression of others along the road - leaving the skyline and the other lighted window to almost simple clutter up the picture. It might work as a large print - but it pays never to forget that the medium you're presenting in here is a really quite small web image - as a 2x1.4 inch print, would you expect this to work?

Butterflies & Flowers
by riley

Comment by Artyste:
Greetings from the Critique Club. My critiques are generally geared towards trying to help you improve your score within DPC, and not on any true "artistic" merit of the photograph itself, unless it relates to DPC voters and scoring. Please keep that in mind as you read this.

Initial Thoughts

A nice shot, but something doesn't feel right.. missing that edge.

Composition/Content

For me, the composition feels a little too crowded into the corner here. Some more negative space would have really helped, especially to sell the "flower" portion of your title. Everything just seems so crowded into that one little space, and the negative space you *do* have doesn't really play well with that.. making it only seem more so, instead of isolating the subject as it should. As I said, leaving more room around the butterfly would have helped this particular photo out a lot.. in my mind.

Background

A good OOF background, but the green color is a little too flat and works against the colors of the flower and the butterfly. There is a lot of clashing going on there.

Camera Work/Technical

Good DOF, but I see a lot of camera shake. I'm curious as to what focal length you were at here, and assume you were getting between 200-300mm? At 1/320, you would have wanted to be somwhere around 150mm.. any more than that and you risk what happened here, unless on a tripod. IS might have helped, but if you were using it, it didn't show up well here, or maybe even hindered this photo.

Digital Processing

This image, IMO, is far too "flat" an image for a really good score on DPC. Camera shake aside (which probably also caused a few lower votes), the color really clashes here, but not in a good way.. in a way that produces any pop. You are left with an image that looks very 2-dimensional, even with a shallower DOF. Some boosts in Contrast, a little more work with a Selective Color adjustment to get some stronger, deeper color, and perhaps getting that background out of that flat pea green color would have all helped. DPC really requires you to have something extra .. intense.. to place really high. Colors that work well together, sharp, sharp images, and moody contrasty images. What I see here is almost the opposite of that. While it is still a decent photograph for what it is, it simply lacks that DPC-ness it needs.

Fits the Challenge

I don't have any personal connection to flowers *or* butterflies as "pleasures", really.. but anything that promotes a sense of calm and peacefulness can't be all bad, and I'm sure you resonated well with many voters.

My Opinion of the Photo

Nothing particularly engaging here for me. Butterflies on flowers shots are a dime a dozen, and they require something really special to shine on a website where we are bombarded with a dozen such photos a day.. Doesn't mean we should stop trying, however, and this is a good step toward the end DPC purpose.

Butterflies & Flowers
by riley

Comment by SquishyB:
A little sharper would be good.

Foggy Sunday
by riley

Comment by atupdate:
Hello from the Critique Club.

For a DPC member that has entered as many challenges as you have, I'm sure you are not totally surprised by the score you received on this entry. From my perspective, there are two primary attributes of this image that worked against you score wise. First, as you can tell from the comments you received, this was not the best subject to choose for an Image without Subject challenge. The interaction between the water and the shoreline and the large rocks in the center of the image are both stronger focal points than the voters were looking for. Second, although the image was shot on a foggy overcast day, the fog is not strong enough to add a mood to the image but instead, gives the image a flat dull appearance. You probably would have been better off PP a bit more pop to the colors in this image.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Poised Pursuit
by riley

Comment by yantski:
Now that's something you don't see every day.

Poised Pursuit
by riley

Comment by CNovack:
First I like that you captured the action of this bird poised to strike. However, compositionally, the angle from which it was taken in does not capture this bird or action in the best light. The angle was taken too much from an angle behind the bird with the results being that the bird's hind end is more visible AND (more importantly) that the action of the bird poised is broken up by the branch 'disconnecting' his head from his neck. A composition that is taken from an angle that shows the bird in side profile would not break up the action and show off the bird in a more flattering angle, especially the upstretched wings ready to take flight/pounce.

Poised Pursuit
by riley

Comment by Germaine:
Good capture but needs to be sharper. Also, I'm not sure that I care to look at that part of the bird's anatomy. 8)

Poised Pursuit
by riley

Comment by GeneralE:
You caught it in a nice unusual pose : )

Poised Pursuit
by riley

Comment by littlegett:
This is fun. Very nice capture. Just needs a little Pop to it.