c u r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by Zita:
Exquisite.

E P C O T
by Ja-9

Comment by Dr.Confuser:
Under-rated!

s e c r e t s • o f • t h e • s e a
by Ja-9

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Critique Club Comment:

Ah, Ja-9, we meet again.

As I said already, I really love this photo and how any reasonable human being could give this a 1 or 2 is beyond me. Up front, I gave it an 8. The capture is wonderful and the processing, while perhaps a little heavy handed on the noise reduction(?), really enhances it. It's got great contrast and details throughout and you nailed the symmetry between the footings.

What keeps this from being a really great photo for me is the intrusion of the next set of footings in the upper corners. While the walkway to the left offsets the symmetry it's not nearly as distracting as the little bit of dark on the edges. And as mentioned, there are some dark artifacts from the processing that could/should have been dealt with.

My suggestion would have been to:

1) Do your work in DFine 2.0 before going into your other tools as eliminating noise up front is much easier and better than to do it after boosting structure and contrast in Viveza and other tools as once you get the structure in the noise you have to overcompensate to eliminate it (my "heavy handed" note).

2) Use the Perspective adjustment in Free Transform (PsCC) to stretch the top of the photo a bit to get the extra footings out of the frame. Yes, the change is noticeable, but only if you knew what it looked like before.

3) Use the Dodge tool, or some other method, to lighten up the dark spots left from structuring and detail enhancement.

As for the familiarity of your subject, I suppose I haven't been around long enough to notice it, but I guess the people of the forum are sending you a message. :)

Nice work, nonetheless.

s w i r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by sfalice:
greetings from the critique club!

Edges, indeed! A plethora of them and all in focus and all nicely composed to make a good image.

You received a good score, but not a 'great' score. Why?

Well, except for the voting gods, who know all, I'll hazard one guess.

Where is the point of interest? If there happened to be one large, transparently gorgeous water drop, would that have made folks stop and look at these deep and glorious reds? Or in other words, something to set off these
delightful patterns and hues would have made the voter/viewer say "oh, look at this!" and up the score would go.
(Maybe)

Always fun to look, in depth, at one of your images, Janine. Keep 'em coming.

s e c r e t s • o f • t h e • s e a
by Ja-9

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
I love everything but the stuff that pops into the frame in the upper corners. Without them it's a 9 or 10 for me. Perhaps a little free transform perspective warp to stretch them out of frame?

s h e l l s
by Ja-9

Comment by Jules1x:
*Greetings from the Critique Club*

Beautiful shot, one of my favorites in the challenge with that full image of vibrant yellow and wonderful repeating pattern of 'shells'. Lighting is wonderful, I love the bits of shadow in the central part of the flower.

You definitely met the challenge, and congrats on a great score. I do not see any negative aspects to your image. As for differences between yours and those that scored a bit better - I'm not sure. There is drama in all, but yours has nice drama too. The other flower shot had less shadows, and it's shadow had more of a yellow color than brown. But the brown in your shot coordinates nicely with the yellow I think.

So nicely done and congrats again on a great finish! Keep up the great work.
Julee

s w i r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by markwiley:
I should have known this beauty was yours. It was a ribbon contender in my ranking.

s w i r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by jomari:
Beautiful!

E P C O T
by Ja-9

Comment by MadMan2k:
What a cool structure! Nicely composed with the silhouetted tree to give some scale, and good amount of negative space to give it room to breathe.

s w i r l s
by Ja-9

Comment by tvsometime:
Good take on the classic rose for the purpose.