You Will Not Be Forgotten
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

I'm sorry to see that you didn't receive any comments, hopefully this will make up for it. In terms of the challenge brief, being a monument it obviously fulfils that.

You've chosen a pretty impressive monument for your subject and I like that you have converted it to mono with the most important parts of it standing out from the background. There are however, one or two things I am not keen on and might have done differently.

I am not happy with the overexposed sky but perhaps you gave it some +EC to get more detail into the faces? I'm not sure how close you were and what focal length you were using but looking at your exif there would have been some scope to use a larger aperture to reduce the detail in the background.

As it stands this is pretty much a record shot of a monument in other words it simply records it straight on without a lot of creative input, from this viewpoint I find the reflections in the base distracting. Given the nature of the subject I don't think you even need to include the base and I would have tried it from a position further to your left and closer in to frame them from the guns up using the flag itself as the main background. This position would also have overcome your sky problem and allowed you to get a better exposure of the faces and it would have stamped your own creative input to it.

I hope this helps, Sid

BIG FISH
by Ja-9

Comment by Neat:
I like a kid whose not afraid of the water, love the PP.

BIG FISH
by Ja-9

Comment by mariuca:
Beautiful

Liquid Diamonds
by Ja-9

Comment by cowboy221977:
Hello from the critique club...

Janine very nice image. Great editing. I like the water / dew droplets. Congrats on a top 10 finish. Happy shooting

quiet
by Ja-9

Comment by cowboy221977:
Hello from the critique club...

Another very good shot from Janine. Well done. Good execution of this. It does feel very serene. I like the reflections in the water. Also your editing is spot on. Nicely done. Happy shooting.

L I F E S T A T I O N • 4 1 1
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from the Critique Club*

The first thing that hits me here is the beautiful sky and the beach reflections.

That sky has such an impact it truly dominates the image, I love the blues, the whites and all the hues in between and the tremendous cloud shapes its all gorgeous. I'm very pleased to see the horizon is level! I like the additional splashes of colour given by the red of the lifestation and his flag and brolly. I am not so keen on the yellow ball and the yellow bin in particular, I find it a little distracting and would probably have cloned them out.

The large DOF gives a feel for the vast open space of the beach

What bothers me most is the composition, you've obviously made a conscious decision to include the foreground family which also draws in some quite ugly buildings in the background, neither of which, in my opinion, add to the image. To me they detract and would be better cropped out, this would then leave me with the lifestation dominating the foreground, as it should, with rest of the people being dominated by him. I think it would also have improved the end result if you had timed the shot with him looking more towards the subjects in the sea.

Overall, a fine shot which generally works well

t e m p t a t i o n
by Ja-9

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from the Critique Club*

Your image has an immediate and strong visual impact. The dark background helps the flower stand out giving it punch.

I like your choice of aperture for a sufficiently deep DOF to enable some detail in the heart of the flower and yet soften the edges of the petals in the foreground. Like your commenters, the image feels somewhat under-appreciated in terms of votes but perhaps this may be because of that very DOF. It could be argued that a sharper edge to the foreground petals would have added to its impact against the dark background. Using the same aperture and bringing the focus point nearer the front would also have softened the dark centre of the flower where there is little detail anyway. It is an alternative approach that may or may not appeal to you but I hope it may help you to understand that there may have been those who do prefer that approach and consequently marked it down as a result, though the 1s, 2s and 3s do seem severe and unjustified.

I like the soft focus areas of the stalk and leaves and their diagonal, the composition does of course make full use of the RoT and the most beneficial one of the hotspots. The only real criticism I can constructively offer is the bright highlight where the stalk and leaves meet, I feel this would benefit from being toned down and made less obvious. Also the colour saturation whilst it makes it very vivid also feels just a touch on the heavy side leaving it somewhat lacking in subtlety.

All in all, I think it is a very competent attempt that meets the challenge well.

t e m p t a t i o n
by Ja-9

Comment by Denise:
wow, I'm with anita, not sure why this didn't score higher

L I F E S T A T I O N • 4 1 1
by Ja-9

Comment by Neat:
I truly adore the clouds in this image so beautiful I love clouds can't get enough of them!

t e m p t a t i o n
by Ja-9

Comment by Neat:
Hi Janine sorry this is down here I thought it was much better than that :-)