Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by AFViper:
The detail of the hand, and grains of coal is great. I also like that you used a black background, instead of white. That gives the shot a mood, and atmosphere. Having the hand dark all the way to the bottom right corner would bet better since the white of the hand is a little ditracting.

Comb & Hair
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by Harz_Joerg:

Here's a tip on how I made the border:
I used Photoshop for it and used a very simple procedure:
1. rectangular selection where the inner part of the border should be
2. inversion of the selection
3. Gaussian blur of the outer part of the border
4. back-inversion of the selection
5. with Edit/Stroke I made a 2 px wide line out of the selection.

It's rather easy and you might apply other effects/filters to the border too.

Greetings,

Jörg

Every Droplet counts in the Distillery
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by JC_Homola:
Greetings from the critique club.
THis is a really fine image. Not too much to critique here!

Actually the more I look at this, I have no suggestions for improvement.

Congrats on 4th place.

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by geewhy:
great image, well captured

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by Armadillo:
Wow, this one gets a ribbon for sure

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by justine:
Great idea and really nice light. Good job. 8 from me. I like this.

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by soup:
well done

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by Spork99:
Nice image, the composition seems a bit awkward to me though, might be nice to see a bit more arm and have the lump of coal more away from the center with less neg space to the left.

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by BigSmiles:
Love it! I would have cropped this in a bit more on the left. The texture is great too!

Coal made once the world go 'round
by Harz_Joerg

Comment by Kavey:
Fantastic texture - I like how you show the grime on the hand.