Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by srbrubaker:
Very nice take on the matchstick theme. We've been treated to a lot of lit ones, I suppose it is inevitable that we should see some recently extinguished. This sets a pretty high standard for that particular sort of work.

Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by Xilebo:
Wow! What is this?

Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by joebok:
Wow - this is really nice!

Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by SandyP:
WOW!!! This is awesome!

Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by oskar:
Brilliant idea, but the outcome is not that superb. You would have needed a bit more light I think. Both to lighten up the picture and also to be able to prevent the smoke to be blown out to completely white.

Æthereal Drapery
by riot

Comment by Cyndane:
That's a match and smoke, right? Great entry!

Extinguished but not Forgotten
by riot

Comment by klstover:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

First, let me say that I am not a professional or even a very good amature photographer, so you may want to take my comments with a grain of salt.

Meeting the Challenge: You did excellently here. You definitely captured the spirit of the original, paying attention to details such as the border.

Title: This is where you put your own spin on it. The title defines the image well, and the recently extinguished look made this tribute photo uniquely yours.

Composition / Color: You said you wanted to show the inner light of the matches, rather than making them look cold and dead. You definitely achieved your goal. The red glow is what makes this photo have a strong emotional impact, which, in my opinion, takes it further than the original.

I feel like maybe the matches should be a bit closer together and higher in the picture, as they were in the original. However, your version emphasizes the negative space more, which is a good contrast to the warmth of the matches. Also I can see how it would have been hard to crop it so that there is less space on the top.

Lighting: The smoke seems to overtake the matches just a little - maybe less light on the smoke would have helped this. But I don't feel that this detracted from your overall image.

Camera Work: As others have said, the left match is out of focus. Other than that, everything's amazing. I loved looking at the pictures of your setup and I am in awe at the time and effort you put into this.

Post Processing: You definitely got what you were going for. The blue-colored smoke definitely reminds us of the original while the black background provides perfect contrast.

Image Dimensions and Filesize: Filesize could have been a bit bigger but I don't notice anything where this is a problem.

Misc / My subjective thoughts: This is a very detail-oriented photo - one thing I noticed was the border. While in the same style as the original, the different color adds to the relative warmth of your photo.

I have to say, you did an amazing job. I think the strength of this image is in the emotional pull - the "heroic symbolism" you were going for is definitely what you got.

I hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Grey Heron with Frog
by riot

Comment by Node:
I predict a top 10 placement, Good luck!

Grey Heron with Frog
by riot

Comment by outland:
Looks like you're close enough that the camera might be the next course. Be careful out there. 10. Best I've seen so far.

Frog out of Water
by riot

Comment by rox_rox:
Amazing! This image inspires me to be more patient. I would have given this a 10.