The television and the baby
by dryn

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club.

First Impression: Love the reflection of the cheeky little face in the TV. Sadly (for me) its overpowered by the colours that look a little 'odd' to me.

Composition: A few commenters mentioned the tv should have been the main subject and I tend to agree with them and would have preferred seeing a little more of it.

Subject: A lovely portrait shot and am sure it will look great in the family album. The backgound is a little cluttered for me (again thats more for the challenge than family album shot). I had thought about a square crop but then you'd have lost that great carpet. Maybe nitpicking but the cut off arm is a little distracting.

Technical: I think this area let the image down the most, the overuse (imho) of the shadow/highlight & possibly saturation tools have messed with the colours - almost HDR like but don't think it helps the image at all.

Final thoughts: Although the link to household appliances is here its rather vague and feel in challenges its important to make the challenge topic stand out. Granted some shots ribbon when only marginaly meeting the challenge but they are normally excellent images in their own right. Keep them coming Dirk!

Curves
by mBastin

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club Mike and congratulations on a great score in your first challenge here!

First Impression: A well lit shot with some great contrasting curves. Sadly my eye is constantly drawn to the small shadow on the left most paper.

Composition: The shot nicely fills the frame and the idea to have opposing angles and an odd number of curves is excellent.

Subject: Yup, its pink so meets the challenge and whilst folded paper is becoming quite common here a well shot example is always pleasing to view so thanks!

Technical:Lovely pastel colours with the darker constradting right subject gives the shot the edge, lighting is almost perfect (that 1 shadow spoils it a little for me). Maybe if the 3 subjects were totally symmetrical the image might be improved slightly?

Final thoughts: Great choice for the challenge and in my book should have been a 6+ however you now have that joyous occaision to come ;) Good luck for future challenges!

Flying in pink
by brentg3

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: Yup, thats certainly pink! Nice and bright compared to the bland background. I thought you'd used selective desat but reading your notes understand it was taken on a bad day.

Composition: Subject fills the frame nicely, might have been even better if you had included all of the 'exit' sign top right (quite comical).

Subject: Like one of your commenters I was thinking Barby Doll Helicopter, fits the challenge well for me, maybe not the most interesting subject out there but plenty to look at and love finding the houses/offices and rails in the reflections.

Technical: I like the exposure though maybe a small boost in contrast would have helped as would a light run in neatimage as there is a fair amount of noise at the base of the helicopter.

Final thoughts:Fits the challenge well and whilst not exactly a WOW image it does hit the spot and feel a 5.1 is a low score. Though, saying that I noticed its bang on the average so a low scoring challenge.

Sew me..
by chestom

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club Chester and congratulations on an excellent score in your first challenge here (and obviously your new personal best lol).

First Impression: Don't normally notice nor comment on borders unles they clash with the image and sadly I'm constantly drawn to the border rather than the image within.

Composition: A pretty good composition and reading your comments I agree that it would have been better with the machine on the right, getting all of the baseplate in the shot and moving the bobbin to the left with a little space between it and the sewing machine.

Subject: Yup, meets the challenge well though like others am not convinced by the hand sewing needle though guess you shoot what you have. An interesting take on the challenge, I like it.

Technical: The background is great with the pastel colours though there is a little blown out area in the centre. I believe the reason why this didn't crack a 6 is the detail (or lack of it) in the sewing machine. For me it lacks detail and another light source on the machine would have made this image pop.

Final thoughts: A decent image well shot so well done and I look forwards to more of your work - good luck in future challenges.

Thistle Bee Good
by posthumous

Comment:
Guess who!!!!!!

First Impression: Am thinking there wasn't enough pink here and whilst I do like the background I think there might be too much that doesn't add to the overall image.

Composition: Maybe a square crop would have helped emphasise the focal point here

Subject: Yup, a nice bright pink but maybe not enough of it for the challenge? Oh, and there is a Bee in the shot, your getting too mainstream for my liking!

Technical: Whilst I love the background there is quite a lot of noise in it. Something I've started playing around with is resize to twice the final size, give the entire image a run through neatimage or similar then sharpen (the plain sharpen) a couple or 3 times resize to the final size and maybe try a light sharpening. Messing around with the amounts can often leave the background nice and smooth with a sharp subject.

Final thoughts:Loving the title Don and didn't have this down for one of yours. Personally, whilst it scored slightly above your average (unrecognised genious) vote I prefer your off the wall images much more.

Life in Eden and the Death of Innocence
by rpethel

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: Kudos to John and Mandy for doing what you asked Richard! Sadly (for me) things start to go downhill from there.

Composition: I feel John and Mandy are too central in the image and probably more importantly you didn't need to show so much of the lower regions and if John's left hand was a little higher on the waist you would have a less compromising image.

Subject: The idea of Adam and Eve was a good one with Adam taking the bite however, I don't think the final image gives that idea justice.

Technical:Focus should be sharper on your models and on my monitor Mandy's hair has no detail. They have different skin tones but neither seem to fit the scene you are tring to depict (or my idea of Adam and Eve). The overexposed background is a little distracting and you already mentioned the overexposed area on Mandy's left (not right) breast.

Final thoughts: A tough subject to shoot and sadly (for me) it was a good idea let douwn mainly by technicals and composition. Again, go John and Mandy for agreeing to this!

Castle Smegblot Leans Precariously in the Artificial City of Meh
by surlybiff

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: I'm one of the likers of the jaunty angle, bags of potential here but sadly the overall image is rather flat and boring.

Composition: A good composition that fills the frame well.

Subject: Great find for the circle challenge but think its a pity you left is so late to shoot and enter as I'm sure you'd have improved on this (might even have had a better shot from this visit as you were still downloading images?

Technical:I have a newly calibrated and slightly dark monitor, to me the image is a little dark, flat and lacks punch - all of which could be improved in an editing program (even a tweak of the contrast would have helped).

Final thoughts: I don't often comment on titles but this made me chuckle (still does). I'm pretty sure this would have scored much better with some minor tweaks though you'd still get a few haters of the jaunty angle (which makes the image for me).

Stone Passage
by Cheerz

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: At first glance this is a little boring although the shadows and textures work well, quite interesting but nothing that captures my eye.

Composition:Reading your notes you didn't actually make a tunnel or cave however that doesn't bother me too much as your shot leads me into what 'could' be a tunnel, the oof focus right hand stone helps the overal depth of the image for me.

Subject: Whilst I see a tunnel I don't feel as if I'm entering a tunnel if you see what I mean? Yes, you took time to construct something just for the challenge and thats always good in my books, its just that it seems to missing the main focal point.

Technical:Love the colours, a great dof of field and shadows though some of the lighter areas are a little overexposed.

Final thoughts: Overall I think this was worth more than its 4.9 and slipping over a 5 would have been about right for me. A decent shot that lacks any WOW, I wonder what it would have looked like from a lower angle?

Brown Ribbons are People, Too
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club. If I critique many more of your images people will start talking Don!

First Impression: My honest first impression was WTF! I'll hold my hand up and say even though I don't speed vote I totally missed the ribbon so apologise on behalf of everybody else without your imagination. The rest of the critique is made after seeing the ribbon and knowing the crazy mind that shot this btw.

Composition: Fills the frame well but maybe pulling back a little would have helped me see the ribbon during the first viewing before focussing on the little people?

Subject:Yup, its a ribbon but of course not of the colour required by the challenge description but guess thats why you did it and titled it thus? Whilst I appreciate the work involved in creating the ickle men I'm sure you agree its not your finest work don?

Technical: Whilst I understand why you changed the bg colour it all looks a little weird and on both monitors this was viewed on I'd say the people were more Bronze/Gold than brown. Did you use F/2,8 to deliberatley keep the subjects almost oof? am guessing with them being quite soft it helped the look you were after but maybe nice and sharp would have been better?

Final thoughts: Well, its not a 'brown' ribbon for me, nor the voters ;) Even though I see the ribbon nowit doesn't do much for me photo wise but makes me chuckle so guess your work is done here.

Message edited by author 2009-08-24 18:05:47.

Obsession
by jotaga

Comment:
Greetings from Andi via the Critique Club

First Impression: ok, it wasn't going to ribbon but even before I read it was a sp I felt it deserved better than 5.1. And no, its not as easy as peeps might have thought.

Composition:I like the crop you used, just showing what you needed to in order to convey your message.

Subject: Well done on the creation and execution, its something I've wanted to try for a while but lost patience trying a sp so thanks! The stare and ribbons do 'reflect' obsession so everything ties in nicely.

Technical: Me? I'm happy the bridge of the nose is oof, no need for it to be in focus to me (though been dinged for submitting purposefully oof eyes more than once). The eyebrows could have been a little sharper to frame the eyes but think what really lowered your vote were the blown areas.

Final thoughts: IMHO this should be in B&W, slightly underexposed with some burning of the blown areas and a little dodging to bring back some detail then finaly erasing the B&W from the eyes to let the brown & blue pop. Hope this helps? let me know if uou'd like to discuss further?