Four Seconds to Impact
by riot

Comment by mariuca:
Hope not!

Four Seconds to Impact
by riot

Comment by tanguera:
Very interesting!

Selenium II
by riot

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

A pleasing image that contributes well to the challenge

Thanks once more for your very detailed and helpful notes that give an insight into your technique and help appreciate the image in a more understanding way, although obviously your voters don’t have this same advantage as I do. I don’t know how you feel about the end result but I think your commenter has summed it up well really. It is certainly a well executed image in as far as it goes but given the nature of the subject and being a free study it was probably never destined for stardom (pun intended!). I think you probably got more pleasure in rising to the challenge and honing your shooting and processing skills? Thanks for your entry Eugene.

Selenium II
by riot

Comment by sarampo:
Could use with a bit more sharpening and contrast, looks a bit hazy. Nice processing on the craters though.

Hairball
by riot

Comment by JamesDowning:
Greetings from the Critique Club Eugene.

This is a pretty funny shot. It takes a majestic animal and makes him a little more like a house cat. Great timing.

Sounds like you did a lot of editing on this. It doesn't look overworked, so I think you were successful there. I agree that a damp green background might have been a little overpowering, but its hard to tell without seeing it. I personally think you should have darkened out the background a bit more to make the tiger stand out as the subject a little more. As it is, he and his hairball appear a little to muddled by the background and I don't think they demand enough attention. On first inspection (I try to just give it a real quick once-over before really analyzing it.) I missed the hairball altogether. Not until I read the title did I begin to see the hairball, and then the link to the challenge. That may be at the heart why this didn't score a little higher.

Technically the shot is pretty good, but with any portrait, the key is in the eyes. I know you can't really control the lighting there in the zoo, but I wish the tigers eyes stood out more. Here, instead of the eyes, I find myself looking at the nose. I think that's also why the hairball doesn't stand out. For some reason my eye just stays fixated on the details of the nose.

Anyways, I hope that gives you a little insight at least into what I saw, and some food for thought. Cheers.

Hairball
by riot

Comment by Neat:
Funny, good catch, top three.

Steindl's Staircase
by riot

Comment by kirbic:
LOL, the photographer always has those things that but the heck out of them that no one else is likely to notice. I thought it was really well executed ant I thought the processing suited the shot.

Steindl's Staircase
by riot

Comment by sidpixel:
Hello from the critique club

An interesting image that contributes well to the challenge

Difficult to imagine a more appropriate image for the challenge brief. What a magnificent place it forms a wonderful setting to those impressive stairs. I can relate to your sense of frustration with the slight imperfections that you have mentioned in your write up, whenever you are trying to get a perfect symmetry it mostly eludes to a greater or lesser extent but none of this is detrimental to the end result. Your question about the processing, well the high score and result is probably the best answer to that so well done for entering it.

Steindl's Staircase
by riot

Comment by bjoern:
Very impressive!

Steindl's Staircase
by riot

Comment by tvsometime:
Looks like some German or Hungarian palace but no idea where. Well executed shot.