Ice, Snow, and Cold Water
by jere2201

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
I like the textures here and you have some good contrast and details. Maybe the composition could draw the eye around a little better.

Reminds me of two of my own entries.

This one did poorly, and I expected it to. I was after strong appeal for a narrow crowd, and the comments indicated that those people saw exactly the same thing that I did.


This one surprised the heck out of me, however. I generally expect abstract to perform mediocre at best in any challenge that is not abstract specific.

Twin Fawns
by jere2201

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Reminds me a bit of one of my own entries that scored even worse.


A lot in common, I think. Mine suffered from being shot at the long end of the zoom, in bright overhead sun.

Thank God for a Nectar
by jere2201

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
A good shot, but I think what kept it down was the wealth of top notch hummingbird shots that people have seen on DPC before. A high ISO setting resulted in more noise grain to the image than you probably had to have. I generally use ISO 400 as a good general purpose walkabout setting, and in bright light, I use 200. I only take it higher when conditions dictate.

Corn Harvesting
by jere2201

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
An interesting scene, but I think you have several problems going on here. The image is very grainy. It looks like you were shooting with a very high ISO at the long end of your zoom, which can result in less than crisp images. Composition is a bit too centered for my preferences as well. Definitely has potential, however. Hope this helps.

Photography Is My Hobby
by jere2201

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Sharp and clear with good colors. I think the problem you had with this one is the lighting was very harsh and unappealing. I haven't been very good with artificial lighting myself, and eventually realized that studio type stuff just wasn't where my interest lied. You may find differently. Perhaps an inexpensive softbox would be a good investment?

Harvesting the Corn
by jere2201

Comment by tate:
I gave it a go. A slight change to the white balance (warmer), contrast, clarity, exposure and crop (this was all done in Adobe Lightroom).

Processing can make a difference with a well-composed image like this. Your exposure was right on for something right of the camera - it just needs some life given to it in post-processing. You might be surprised at how much post processing there is on some images. phlearn is one good place to get some tips on post processing.

Harvesting the Corn
by jere2201

Comment by tate:
I like what you have here. The composition is good and the subject is great. I gave it a 7.
Criticism: The entire image is a bit soft and the color is off (maybe the white balance). That may have hurt the score a bit. When I have a chance, I will try to play with a copy of it a little bit to see what you think.

Around The County
by jere2201

Comment by Jules1x:
I thought this was a very good image for the challenge. I gave it a 6. The black of the mirror, especially on the right side of the image took away a bit from the overall impact of the image for me since it was so prominent. I would also say that I felt the scene was a bit ordinary. Aside from the interesting choice to use the mirror, I did not find anything particularly striking about the scene that would make the image even more memorable to me.

Hay bales on the field
by jere2201

Comment by tnun:
it does look good, and I like the black and white. (yes, we'd like it bigger).

Closed for the Day
by jere2201

Comment by tnun:
combination of painting and paper sculpture.