Jack-O-Lantern Family
by xylke

Comment:
Best carved pumpkins of the bunch! I like the way you've given the context of a grand and modern(?) porch. Lighting is perfect...but then, you probably know that.

Happy Dude
by TommyMoe21

Comment:
Love the way this fills the frame--the round pumpkin in the square hole! ;-)

splattered furry
by raydean

Comment:
Oooh! I love the hostility of this image! Far better than letting some punk steal your precious carving off the front porch while you sleep and waking up to it smashed in the center of the street! Take control of your pumpkin's fate! =o

Lit Up
by Cutter

Comment:
Well controlled. Super sharp. Interesting smoke element in the background--ads to the humor. Carving, while not "expert" jack-o-lantern school technique, is well fit for your subject. Lighting sweet!

Three Delicate Beings
by stare_at_the_sun

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

A facinating find for a subject! Your notes add to the appreciation of the subject. It is an unusual sight.

The composition has a clearly defined subject and focal point. The bugs attention converge on a complex part of the flower. The background is appropriately out of focus helping to isolate the subjects. All the necessary pieces and well captured in arrangement.

The lighting is a bit harsh resulting in hot spots on the beetle's back which detract slightly. The colors are strong to the yellow side--I can't help but think there is color detail sacrificed for the sake of saturation, but the monochromatic quality of the tones helps unify the subjects. A little less yellow might have provided a more realistic rendering for the eye. It's bending toward feeling a bit sickly, especially where the beetle is concerned. The harsh light also has created a difficult situation for trying to maintain detail in both the brights and the darks--the darks lost out a bit--and yet the petals seemed to have little detail in the mid-tones. Not sure what to offer by way of suggestion, unless your prepared to have an assistant walk around holding a diffuser for you. :)

The depth of field was necessary in a macro such as this. However, it seems that the focus needs to be a bit more uniform throughout the critical point of interest where the bugs meet on the flower head. Instead the focus seems to be on the near parts of the flower.

Overall an interesting subject with a great deal of appeal for the naturalist and curious alike. As it placed weel in the challenge, there is little to quibble with the voters over concerning the topicality of your image.

Good luck in future challenges!
Keep shooting!
--Kadi

Contrastism
by emtmdh

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

A black and white image of a cloudy sky that shows texture and contrast in light and darks.

Your commenters have spoken to the idea of fitting the challenge. I won't say more on that except to say that in the challenges here it is a huge factor influencing voting.

The image strikes me as a good study in black and white. There is a great range of tonality. It appears you may have used a polarizing filter to achieve an almost black sky which enhances the ephemeral nature of the clouds.

The composition has a sense of diagonals because of the light direction and placement of the subject. This provides a bit of interest and energy to a rather mundane subject.

Technically, I can see striations on the most solid of the cloud formations. It appears that although you have 640 pixels on the longest side of your image, the file size is about half of what it could be. These noisy artifacts detract from the purity of the image you're trying to present.

Overall the image appears to be a fine study of a common subject.
Keep shooting!
--Kadi

mmmm i wove my wittle ball
by Tati

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

A difficult subject as cats at play are in near constant motion and you have to get them when you can!

Composition: The subject is isolated by cropping and a fairly neutrall background. However I feel there could be less of the fabric and more of the cat in the image--recomposing this shot would have helped. The most interesting part of an animal is the face, if that cute little mug had been placed closer to one of the intersections of the imaginary rule-of-thirds lines, the composition would be somewhat stronger.

Lighting: There appears to be a single light source which casts strong shadows behind the cat's ears. Though likely unavoidable, it gives the sense of a quickly snapped image. The lighting is harsh enough that, even though there no true blacks in this image the one paw and the fur on the cheeks have lost detail (slightly blown out highlights). A more even light and, possibly, a secondary light source would have helped in this case. If the main source of light is an on-camera flash, that would account for the harsh highlight on the ball and the bright spots on the fur. On-camera flashes at close range can be deadly as they are primarily designed to cover a broad area at a distance.

Technical considerations: The image is presented as 640 pixels wide, however, the file size is quite small. I see pixelation on the whiskers and facial fur--the compressed file size may contribute to this. Additionally, you may have oversharpened the image. Fine lines such as whiskers are tell-tale for file compression and sharpening. The face is in focus, but much of the rest of the subject does not appear to be--that's o.k. in an image like this, but since the ball is an important part of the composition, care should be taken to ensure that it is sharp as well.

The choice of black and white is fine for me. However, in the context of the challenge, voters seemed to want to see a pale color on a white background. If the fabric is not white, then you had to go in this direction to meet the basic challenge criteria. (And you can't always guess where the votes are going to fall.)

Overall, a good attempt to capture a playful moment.
Keep shooting!
--Kadi

Echinarachnius parma
by ShannonLee

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

An image of a sand dollar in the sand. The subject is appealing to me, I've always liked sand dollars!

The composition of the image follows the rule of thirds by placing the subject off center and higher in the frame. In a simple composition placement is critical--it might have been ever so slightly stronger if the center of the sand dollar fell on the intersection of the imaginary thirds lines.

The depth of field is limited, throwing the background out of focus helps bring the eye forward to the subject. There is a great deal of interest in the sand grains--lots of texture and color to look at--but the sand provides little contrast to the subject.

The lighting is flat (as you note). Using a small reflector or flashlight to provide directional lighting might help bring out the detail in your subject, especially needed in the finely etched lines of the sand dollar's star. The far rim of the sand dollar appears to lose its crispness due to these lighting conditions and the fall off of focus at that point.

I keep trying to decide what the image "says" to me. It has a scientific title but isn't a specimin shot since the item is not whole nor, alternatively, is there a lot of environmental context...so that's not it. I suppose, in the end, it says "here is a sand dollar." I think somehow an image needs to help the viewer understand what is special about its subject--what's so special about this sand dollar--or what's so appealing about sand dollars in general? In other words, why do I want to keep looking at this?

Overall a good attempt to portray a favored subject.

Keep shooting!
--Kadi

Fragile Weather
by andyro

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

A landscape shot with a dramatic sky. The strongest subject here is the sky--it contains the majority of the light, texture and interest.

The composition roughly follows the rule of thirds by placing the horizon line on one of the thirds lines. However the horizon is tilted--this may be due to the presence of a hill but that would not be evident in this image. Once the sky is seen, the eye travels to find another point of interest. The light on the white buildings begs to be noticed, the eye then travels along the lines of perspective created by the building and the diagonal shadow and ends up at a rather non-descript square building off to the left. Had there been something of interest there (perhaps the tower) the image would deliver more satisfaction. Alternatively, if the lit area in the foreground which falls on a thirds point had been more interesting there might be some satisfaction. Unfortunately the eye wanders, bouncing between the detail of the foreground and the light on the clouds. I think this image could be rescued somewhat by cropping out almost all of the foreground leaving just a sliver of the horizon and cropping out the leading lines of the building on the left and the squarish building they lead to. The spectacular part of the image is truly the sky and the most interesting part of the landscape is the tower anad the sheeting rain falling behind it.

As far as meeting the challenge topic goes, I think you almost had it. It is, in my opinion, the lack of control in the composition that hurt its challenge rating.

Overall, a nicely spotted scene!
Keep shooting!
--Kadi

My first Rose
by mphoinix

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

A beautiful flower in a lovely shade of pink. Detail well rendered. Isolated and centered subject. Size of image prevents full appreciation.

I think you chose a lovely subject to photograph. Flowers, especially roses, are easy to relate to the challenge subject of "delicate." However, common subjects often need exceptional presentation to score well in challenges.

The lighting is pleasing. It preserves the detail in the petals which is highly desirable. No extra shadows have been created by multiple light sources.

The composition is lacking, in my opinion. The subject is centered which gives the image the sense of "here it is, a rose" and not much more. I like the inclusion of leaves and thorns. The leaves provide a nice color contrast to the blossom. The sharp thorns contrast with the softness of the flower. But the fact that almost half the image is taken up with the foliage tends to give it as much importance as the blossom. If this subject were shot from above there might be as much of the foliage (or more) but it would then be a background framing the true subject. The blue and white background draws un-needed attention--I think you want to try to find plainer backgrounds, perhaps with less color, to reduce competition for attention of the eye.

It is difficult to tell, but it seems that the depth of field needs attention. The stem in the lower right-hand corner is out of focus in a way that seems unintentional, yet the background appears to be mostly in focus carrying the eye too far beyond the bloom.

Size of image: We can't ignore the commenters on this one as it is a proven way to lower your score in challenges. Definitely learn to get the maximum 640 pixels on the longer side of your entries as well as max out the file size as nearly to the 150kb allowed. (If you need help with this there are tutorials and forum threads on the topic and I would be willing to give you suggestions if you'd like to send my a private message.)

Overall a nice photo of a beautiful subject. Glad to see you mention that you took many shots of this rose--that is the best way to learn.

Keep shooting!
--Kadi