Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by Azrifel:
Try a 400x300 format for example.
I tried it in Irfanfiew with this pic, it looked a lot better in that format. (resample using lanczos).
It could also be saved at a much higher quality and the quality wasn't lost in compression artefacts.
It won't work on all pictures, but it is something worth to experiment with.

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by Azrifel:
~~~~Critique Club Comment~~~~

*Composition (content)*
Interesting composition.
Good balance between the main subject and the background subject.
Good horizontal portayal.
The lights on the building in the background provide some light intensity balance with the light of the fountain at the right. It also gives some variancy in color; yellow-red vs blue white.
The arches of the background-building and the water itself provide depth.
I guess that the material in the bottom is a concrede edge from the fountain. This gives a frame to the bottom, it doesn't leave the composition open at that end, which might be a good thing if anything beyond that isn't interesting.
Standing back more to capture more of the fountain and to do more with the rule of thirds might have made this better tough.

*Background*
When you are able to control aperture, you migh have wanted to experiment with the settings to get only the fountain edge to edge in focus and blur the background. Focus on 1/3th from the bottom of the frame an try F5-F2.8

*Camera Work (Technical)*
You don't have much control, but fortunately the shutterspeed was slow enough to capture the motion of the water. That is a good thing.
The whitebalance is slightly on the blue side, a better camera would have done a better job or provided better manual settings.
Unfortunately the camera destroy's alle sharpness and detail by very agressive jpeg compression (I talked to you about that earlier in the forums) and that is what ruins this picture for the viewer. It could also do with some exposure compensation experimentation.

*Digital Processing (technical)*
It makes no sense to discuss this. Because of the agressive jpeg compression many post processing techniques will come out bad. It might help under the new rules to make your image smaller!!!!!! You are not limited to 640x480 I believe, but can also RESAMPLE (Lanczos / bibubic algoritm; try Irfanview if you don't have an editor that can do that; DONT RESIZE, ALWAYS RESAMPLE!!!). That process might take some of the compression artefacts away and allow you to save at a higher compression level, close to 150kb. The small file might even allow for some sharpening without worsening the picture! Check the new rules about the file size and check the forums about resampling and saving.

*My opinion*
This is a very interesting picture (seriously, I don't say this to make you feel better), but it is ruined by the camera. I hope that the new rules allow you to post something of better quality, because your approach to photography is promising.

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by Journey:
I just read your forum post about the Critique Club and that made me decide to comment on this picture. First of all, I commend you on a nice sense of creativity. That shines through even though you're working with low-end equipment that hampers efforts towards a great image the way you visualize it. I like the title because the color of the water has gotten a feel of fire about it, i.e. more creativity there :) The background of the houses and the tree is quite interesting; you don't have dof capability so have you to work with what you got; would have been nice otherwise to blur this a little. There are two things i find distracting: one is the letters of the advertisement near the house; it's a little too prominent (again, you had no control over that). The other thing i found distracting is the greyish foreground of the fountain edge. I would have cropped that out and the picture would have given more focus on the water/fire that way. Imho, cropping it that way would enhance the visual interest of the overall image. Overall, good job in creativity and really that's the most important part (a better camera will come some day). Regards, Journey

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by PTLParsons:
Out of focus, maybe from over enhancing the colors. Not sure. Building look all washed out. Very poorly executed. PTL3

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by autool:
Composition: Subject Placement, Cropping, Background7,
Technical: Focus, Exposure, Lighting, Processing7,
Appeal: Is it Interesting, Motivating, Etc.? 7,
Total Averaged Rating7. Autool

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by JEM:
Would have been nice to see the entire fountain. Great hot colors. JEM

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by nards656:
Hmmm. Not sure how the photo matches with the title, but I understand the water LOOKS hot. Don't see a real photojournalism idea, but I am voting largely quality this week and taking the challenge largely for granted. 6 nards656

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by karmat:
The colors in this shot are awesome. What detracts primarily is the lack of focus on any one thing, I think. Good composition and framing though. karmat

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by Turbotech:
There is just lots wrong here. Color is nice but there is no control.

Water can scald in less than 3 seconds
by Gracechild7

Comment by Antithesis:
HUH, I'm sure this is not scolding water. What is this really about???