A Matter of Perspective
by h2

Comment:
Awesome perspective, excellent explanation (it was as I expected in voting - should have commented!). Quite a crazy building, and kudos to you for finding an interesting view to shoot from.

Life is like a piano... what you get out of it depends on how you play it.
by p-chan

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

My first take-away is the title in particular. Great title. So much meaning can be extracted from it.

Image wise, I like the concept. Obviously something hit voters well, as a 5.95 is in very good territory. Still, I think it could potentially be improved. When I first look at the image, to me it looks rather yellow. I decided to play with it a bit myself, and applied an auto-levels layer at about 70% opacity in photoshop. That seemed to cut off the overtly yellow hue, while not really disturbing the yellow aged look of the keys.

I like the composition. The horizontal layers work well together. There's a nearly abstract quality to it and I really like that you focused in on a unique viewpoint. I do think the out-of-focus lower section detracts from the image a bit. If that had been in clear focus, I think it could have brought out even more of an aged feeling to the image. In an image like this, I think that's what makes it. The piano is representing life. Life is full of stories, memories, etc. which are represented by the scratches, nicks, scrapes, and other patina that grow over the years of use. That very interesting bit of photograph are however rather obscured by the lens blur. I'm actually a bit surprised that at F8 on a DX body it wasn't more in focus. I'd suggest testing a few stops down, f11-f16 and see how that affects the blur. If nothing else, since it's advanced editing, you could stack two photos with the two different focus points to achieve the desired level of detail. Again, this is just thought. Detail there could completely ruin the photo, who knows!

As I stated before, I did import your photo into PS and started playing with it some. As an alternative to making the lower section in focus, I ended up cropping off 75% of the out of focus area. That became a very wide photo, and as I've found, wide crops don't do so well. So that leaves us with two options, both of which I felt were potentially stronger than your original image. (Keep in mind, it's just my opinion.) One option is to add in a letterbox frame. I think it helps emphasize the horizontality of the shot, and ensures the eyes aren't drawn out of frame by the bright hands. Option two is to crop off the left and right most of the frame. This crops off the pinky of each hand, but actually gives a very balanced image, in my opinion. Just enough visual information to let the viewer know what you're doing, while keeping the subject front and center. Of the two crop options, this may be my favorite as it emphasizes the abstract quality of the image.

Again, a great concept, and a nice execution! Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future!

Food for thought.

James Downing

Caldera Kitten
by Samantha_T

Comment:
I love the composition. Great little cute cat too. Nothing to possibly dislike about this image.

Hesitant
by Ammie

Comment:
Where was this? What's the background on this shot? Lots of stuff to tell here, wish there was more to your photo description.

la giaconda
by tanguera

Comment:
Again, a great shot. I can't believe the amount of work that went into it... and to result in a lowish score... pity. I scored it an 8 for the effort involved.

Getting critical, the thing that annoyed me most was the processing on the hands. They look hairy, but I think you were going for the aged paint look. They stand out too much from the rest of the image.

If you can liquify and shrink the head a bit too, it would help. If you're going that far on the final edit, see if you can extend the chin a bit more too. (Or maybe just bring the neck back a bit) She has a bit of a manly pose right now, and with an extended chin position relative to the neck, it might assist in feminizing the pose more.

ReCycled Mosaic
by banmorn

Comment:
Looks like this must have been an HDR of some sort? The image is way too even for my tastes. The foreground blends with the background way too much. There's no depth. You might have been able to pull this off with a wide aperture so as to blur the background out. Even then, the light feels too even. The depths of the image would look better if darkened somehow, at least to separate it. Crop off the bottom half of this image with your hand. See what I mean? The top half of the image is basically the same all the way across. Not meaning to be harsh here, but I figured you may want an honest opinion.

Zephyr Cove ~ Lake Tahoe
by Ja-9

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

By your score and placement, obviously this is a successful image. I think it blends a great scene, and a great sunset, and rolls in some emotion. I think often emotion is difficult to get from a non-human image, but this one does so. What person wouldn't want to be sitting on that beach and enjoying that wonderful view and sunset. Looks to be the perfect setting.

Color-wise, I think you successfully popped the orange and yellows of the sunset. I think I might have tried to increase the vibrancy of the blue though. A really great sunset in my opinion has a wonderful blue sky, which contrasts well with the orange and yellows of the illuminated clouds. A little burning might have done you well on the brightest area of the clouds too, but I'm not entirely sure it's necessary.

Cloud-wise, part of me wants to walk up the beach, to the right, a little more in order to capture a little more of the swirled cloud. As is, it leads in well to the trees, but it's also in conflict with them. A little more separation might have worked even better for you, that way you could have a wonderful division of light and dark. Sky and silhouette.

For landscapes, I've also found that a taller crop can sometimes lead a viewer to spend more time on your photo. I think it's mainly because it results in more visual space for the eye to get lost in. With my hands, I played with different crops on your image, and I think cropping off the right 20-25% of the image could have been an even stronger composition. That way the division between light and dark would be nearly central. I understand why you stuck it at 1/3, but the middle crop seems stronger to me. It emphasizes both the trees and the sunset more evenly, and basically gives your image 4 quadrants.

Looking through your editing steps, I see that you adjusted sharpness prior to resizing the image. Now, I'm no pro at editing, but I personally think the sharpening at that level does not affect the final outcome of the 800 px size. I tend to do all of my sharpening after the final resize, as that's what really counts to the viewer. I am not familiar with PSE10, but on CS5 I use the smart sharpen filter. Set the radius to 0.6 to 0.4 px, and it can be used to finely adjust the sharpness of your final image. It helps a good bit, because no matter what, you will get some automatic smoothing whenever you downsize, although it honestly doesn't look too bad. Anyways, it's something to experiment with because for the longest time I had wondered how some members could get such amazing clarity of details on their images. Again, a great image and a pleasure to look at. It makes me want to go visit the lake!

Food for thought.

James Downing

Air Conditioner Etchings
by tvsometime

Comment:
Excellent! Amazing what you find when you stop and look around.

Mom, I need a spoo...nevermind...
by ttroutman71

Comment:
Could have been a great shot, but a bit ruined by the flash and perspective in my opinion.

How Many Everyday Objects Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
by Samantha_T

Comment:
I like the concept. You're getting quite good at the expert editing! Up there at gyaban levels. The cat really makes the shot. Great pose by you, but what's with the fork in your hand?