Taste - tea or water?
by letenele

Comment:
The black napkin in the back is a little distracting. I'm not sure about the opposites here... I like the DOF though.

Cubs Win! Cubs Lose!
by toddhead

Comment:
Interesting idea. Getting farther away from the background will incread the void feeling- right now the background is a little distracting. Good job trying something new!

The Old and The New
by ronlcox

Comment:
There's a lot of pixelation around the wings. Could you have made the image a little bigger? Interesting take!

Life and Death
by pogboy4

Comment:
Nice angle on the lighting, but the light seems a little hot. Interesting take!

Punishments and Rewards
by snowleopard10101

Comment:
Nice composition and take on the challenge. The image seems a little over exposed though. I'm not sure about the necessity of the border, but I'll ignore it during voting!

Sounds From the Past
by ExoticChaos

Comment:
I like the sepia a lot, but the image is very out of focus. Also, I'm not sure about the lighting. The dark bottom corners bother me.

Black and White
by dadas115

Comment:
What's that I smell? Is it a ribbon? Excellent shot.

Love & Hate
by jonpink

Comment:
I like the composition and the lighting very much. I wish that the letters were a little bigger and the buttons on the pants didn't reflect so much.

Mary-Alex1
by movieman

Comment:
I like this one very much- very rocker-esque!

sunrise
by litbolti

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

The controversy with your image seems to be two-fold. First, whether or not it is truly an abstract, and second, whether or not there is too much post-processing.

I, myself am not against the use of filters on digtal pictures, but in this case it feels like you forced a picture into abstraction, rather than taking an abstract photo. It's not a case of "does not meet challenge", more of a case using photoshop as a chainsaw, when sometimes it works best as sandpaper.

That being said, I'd like to give you a critique of the image as is, regardless of any challenge dictates.

I like the line of the image very much. I think the cropping was well done, as well as the focal point placement. I especially like that the small dots unify the picture and add interest. I think that the color has become a little muddy, especially around your focal point. So much of the pistal has become the same color as it's surroundings, that it looses it's strength.

I hope this is helpful! Please feel free to PM or email me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Amanda