The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by jpdeloof:
Is the smile merry or sad? By seeing all the blur of this photograph I would say that it was sad and that the eyes were filled with tears. Certain artists make pass the blur like a criterion accademic, but not being an artist here the blur remains blur

Who's gonna be the first?
by M&M

Comment by e301:
from the circumference of the Critique Club

Just for fun then ...

I've never seen this kind of shot do well on dpc - there are a number of fundamental problems photographically that'll stop it, and one or two challenge-wise that hurt it more.

Primarily you have a major white-balance issue - surely the table cloth should be white, and what you have here is blue-green and rather dark: low light can make this difficult for the camera to sense, but it's easily fixable in processing, surely.

The disqualification was apt - I think you had to add those light-points because otherwise the cutlery was simply not prominent enough in your shot for most people to notice - never forget that the vast majority of voters look at your image for about a second - you need to hit them pretty hard and pretty quickly.

The light is pretty harsh and dull - the cake has become a dark muddy nothingness, and the santas are the only true subject of this shot.

All that and exactly the kind of border that does more to draw attention to itself than anything in the photograph. I'd be absolutely certain that it wasn't scoring so well before the DQ: those things mentioned are the real problem, and they are major problems.

e

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by basssman7:
Too many distracting highlights.

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by JordanZ:
very interesting looking

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by Nordlys:
Definitely the cutest picture of an Advent wreath I've seen. =-) I fear this might not score well (hope I'm wrong). Deceptively well done. 7-ish.

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by Katmystiry:
This is too blurry. Sorry :(

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by Prism:
took me a while to distinguish what was in this shot. I like the blur outside the ring but the inside reflection needs to have a sharper focus, IMHO

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by RichSeal:
I think this has got a lot of potential. I would have prefered to see the reflection a bit more clearly tho. I like the blurred bits on the outside of the circle.

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by nlghttrain:
so much out of focus its becoming hard to look at, but great idea though

The Smile of Advent
by M&M

Comment by Germaine:
Something needs to be in focus.