Wire
by danculwell

Comment by vawendy:
Actually, I think people are picking it apart a little much. I like the picture very much (I actually gave it a 7).

I'm actually thinking that people might not have thought it fit lines very well. I think people were expecting long lines. My two cents thrown in, for what it's worth.

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by HarveyG:
I've had a thought on this "placement in the challenge" thing and where one places:

85 of your votes were 5 or more.
65 of your votes were 4 or less.
You also got a 10.

56% of your votes were above 5, from what I've seen at DPC that's darn good.

I'm looking at it from this perspective now, i.e. Can I stay above 5. Sure I'd like a ribbon, who wouldn't, but right now I'm learning as to what's liked here and what's not. It however won't affect my enjoyment of photography.

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by HarveyG:
Hi Dan, I was torn between a 5 and a 6 on this shot, many got 4's from me that I thought were horrendous point, shoot, upload attempts, barring about 35-40 shots that I scored 6+. I personally saw 3 lines, the main line of twisted wire as one and then the two twisted together. 1+1=3? The diagonal is appealing to me, bottom left drawing up to focus at middle right. Perhaps a wee bit more focus before and beyond the barb would have you bought you at least more 5+ votes. Another string of wire OOF can be seen BR and that put me off a 6. Still a well judged shot and relevant to the challenge. WD.

Meaty the Spam Man...
by danculwell

Comment by undieyatch:
Archive Collection - Food Faces & Edible Effigy

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by ShutterPug:
I myself like the barb you chose to put in focus. You got it tack sharp too! The background does not feel too busy at all to me. I like it - other than it seems to have a bit of noise. Sure, nice octagon shaped bokeh is best, but we all work with what we have (lens, equip, etc)

Personally I feel you deserved a much higher score - a high 5 perhaps

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
I gave it a 6 and pressed on. It is a simple composition and initially grabby, but did not engage my attention for very long. I still felt it deserved a vote on the positive side of the scale. I had actually guessed it would come in at about 5.2-5.3. It appears most of us came in way below where we anticipated.

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by jotaga:
I like the composition, but would prefer if the wire is more diagonal on the frame.

The shallow DOF is nice, but maybe it would work better if the first thorns were in focus, and not the second... Im not sure, but the first one keeps calling my attention, and maybe would be better to put that one in focus...

I dont like the bokeh shape, but I think that this is a lens issue, and have nothing to do with your technique...

I think that the main issue here was some noisy feeling on your bokeh, and that the colors seem a little washed... (was this a cloudy day?)

Wire
by danculwell

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club (unofficial)!

Initial impression: Some voters take the plural as a given - the challenge was Lines and there's really only one here. Shot looks flat.

Technical: Composition isn't bad but the bg is busy; there is a hint of leading lines but could be more dynamic. The very shallow dof is probably what hurt you the most, as only the twist of the barbed wire is in focus. Could have done a little more in pp in terms of levels/curves/contrast to help the image pop a bit more.

Artistic: I can see the shot you wanted to get, and shooting from the ground up may have been a better way to go here. Don't be afraid to shoot from as many different angles as you can; for example the sky may have been a better backdrop than the pasture. Were you trying for some bokeh? If so, not a bad attempt, but the composition would still need work.

Overall: I would have tried to shoot so that there were more strands of wire visible, and definitely with the wire in the foreground in focus to help lead the eye in. Voters seem to love tack-sharp focus all throughout a shot, but often seem to forgive an oof background, so long as the rest is in focus.

Good try, keep shooting!

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Ectopistes Migratorius (Passenger Pigeon)
by danculwell

Comment by jawsh3539:
Hello,

I would never have known the bird was not alive...nice! I like the photo. I guess since you asked for critique I can only say what I may have done different if it were my photo. Keep in mind I am by no means an expert and actually think it looks good already. The only thing I would have done was used a noise recuding software and sharpened the eye after.

Nap Time
by danculwell

Comment by Ecce_Signum:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: Rather than being drawn to the Flamingoes my eyes keep settling on the grass and its quite distracting for me.

Composition: I think the almost central subjects work well here with just the right amount of foreground and an interesting background, maybe a slightly lower perspective would have helped remove some of the boring middle ground.

Subject: Yup, Flamingoes are pink, a good/obvious choice for the challenge and meets it well. Yes, there were a few in the challenge but you didn't need to get 'that' comment (they left similar on several shots and should be ignored imho).

Technical: I think the technicals are what hurt your score, too much of the main subjects are blown and not very sharp. Not sure of your post processing but what looks like too much shadow/highlight has been applied resulting in odd colours in the bg birds and the great looking branches hanging down. The foreground grass is an odd colour and looks over sharpened.

Final thoughts: With some better editing this image could/should have scored higher than a 5.