elder's chair
by undieyatch

Comment:
excelent image, although i would like to see more of the window :)

7

Brothers
by pmichaud

Comment:
Hola from the critique club.. :)

ok, im gonna start off by telling you this is a good image for something taken in 2002. When one enters a challenge such as best of 2002 one must consider the caliber of person he is going up against. Many of the people on dpc are professional's, this considered many of them probably had dSLR's in 2002.

Now to the image. Not to be artsy and critical but composition lacks, mainly because you didnt follow the rule of thirds, i know this is a snapshot but that would have boosted your score i little. I also think that you could have eddited this a little bit more in order to make the subject 'pop' more. i say this because in order for the photograph to be succesfull it must possess a main subject, in this photograph the lighting was flat, causing everything to look the same.

I understand that this is just a snapshot, and that you weren't really taking into acount the rule of thirds and the lighting and such, but in order to score well here, you have to do that, even if it is just a snapshot.

if you have any comments or questions please feel free to PM me. :)

hope i helped,

-Dan

Soft and Hard
by toffle

Comment:
Hi from the critique club,

well done in this challenge! You met the challenge and you did it in style
(nice shoes and stickings by the way). When i first saw this image i thought, i see the shoe, but wheres the other element. Then i saw that you used a short depth of field to show the feather. This is the main thing that brought your score down. The other thing that i would have liked to see was lighting that was a little less harsh. I'm wondering if you diffused the light at all? This would make the blown out skin a little less blown out and create more of a snese of realism rather then abstract.

As i said before the main reason why i think this image was not voted very high was that the feathers were out of focus. What i would do to fix this is maybe wrap the shoe with the feathers or have a feather sticking out of the shoe, something creative.

Something else i would have done to this photo is diffused the light. This can be done by simply wrapping some parchement paper or wax paper around the lamp, causing a diffused glow. I see in your comments you said that you didnt do very much PP. Although sometimes this is bad i think that this photo could have benefit from a little bit more post processing. I would have cloned out the distracting white marks in the background and i would have run it through neat-image to soften the skin tomes a little bit.

Overall i though this was a good technical photo. But it was lacking some crucial elements that would have mad eit score higher.

Everything i said here is not meant to be offensive, its onl meant to help you. If you have any comments or questions feel free to private message me and ill get back to you as soon as i can.

Most of all keep taking photos, its the only way to get better!!

-Dan Gruskin
P.S. please ignore any grammer mistakes, as you are an english lit. student ;)

Hot Pink
by mystical_princess

Comment:
Hi From the Critique Club :)

Before i start i would just like to say that everything said here is not meant to be offensive or cold-hearted.

To start off with right off the bat i noticed the background and the hat were similar colors. Although one is purple and one i bright pink, the topic was burst of color. Maybe if you had a black background, or if you had her outside and you did some selective desat.

Overall the camera work in this photo was good. I'm guessing that you used an on camera flash, otherwise the shadow behind your daughter wouldn't be so harsh. Other than that the depth of feild was good, and the exposure was good. I can't help but wonder though weather running this shot through neat image would help soften the light on her face.

I think what really brought this image down was the fact that it looks like a snapshot. Although in some challenges this could be a plus, in this challenge because its a members challenge you really have to respect the calliber of photographer that you are up against, they will have profesional lighting systems and off camera flahses. I try to replicate this even though i dont have fancy stuff like that.

I hope that i helped a little bit. And if you have any comments or questions PM me.

-Dan Gruskin

spining lights
by polkop

Comment:
Hi from the critique club :)

Before i start nothing that is said here is meant to be offensive. Ok first off, spelling mistakes in the title are a big no no, because unless you are using the title as a play on words a mispelling is going to bring you down.

Technically this image is not very interesting. In order to do well in a chellenge on this site you must have something interesting that really grabs someones attention. The exposure seems to be correct because the lights are not blown out.

Overall i think what really brought this image down was the fact that it was not eye catching. It just seems like a run of the mill shot.

Keep up the good work, and keep learning from all those around you!!

If you have any questions or comments just PM me,
-Dan Gruskin

Zen Garden
by talmy

Comment:
Hi from the critique club :)

At first when i saw this image i thought that the greens were very blown out and that the pattern did not seem like the main point of this picture. Upon further inspection my initial feelings were correct for this image.

Although the green moss and the bamboo leaves (I believe thats what they are) add to the photo nicely, when you increase the saturation of a certain color too much it becomes to look too saturated, and thus attains a fake look. Also another thing to realize is that when you reduce a color from a photograph (in this case yellow) you a re decreasing the color from the whole photo not just the part you want to unless your using selective desaturation. I say this because it is a common mistake not to realize where certain colors are and how they affect the picture. Before i do any desaturation of colors i bring the saturation of that color all of the way up just so I can see where that color is located and what areas it will affect when i do the desaturation. I think this affected the photo for me because of the pebbles seeming almost a non-real color. Also the bamboo leaves have yellow in them too and the desaturation affected them aswell.

As i said before in this photo the pattern in the pebbles does not seem like the main point in this picture. When i see this picture i see the rocks as the main focus. I think that this is also one of the reasons why this photo got voted down.

This critique is not meant to discourage you in any way, and keep up the good work. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail or private messaging.

-Dan Gruskin

Patterns within patterns: Stars and Lights
by AlanBes

Comment:
Hi from the critique club :)

Okay, my first impression of this shot was that it fit the challenge well, some of the spots were blown out a bit, and it was a tad crooked. Upon further inspection and after reading your comments about how you edited this picture in photoshop, i have concluded the following.

It seems like although you took a shot that fit the challenge very nicely, there is nothing in this photograph that really grabs my attention, a focal point. This is an important aspect of any photograph, without a main point why take the photo. I'm also wondering if you experimented with different white balances and exposures. I say this because unless the light source was above the pattern the blown out patches of blue seem a bit over exposed. Maybe a little less contrast in photoshop could cure this.

I hope that I helped and if you have any questions PM me,

-Dan Gruskin

poppy
by IndigoButterfly

Comment:
Hi from the critique club :)

When i first saw this image the thing that struck me most were the vibrant colors.

Upon further inspection the bottom of the flower is a little bit out of focus, and thus detracts from the photo a little (i'm not sure if this is because of the dimmensions of the picture (height only 543 pix)and your file size seems a little small... make sure that your quality when you save is at the right setting). Another point to make is the lighting which you used. Using lighting to enhance a photograph is one of the most important asspects of photography and you used it well here. Creating a picture where the flower is somewhat transparent but not totally.

Overall the sharpness of this picture really makes it what it is. Another interesting aspect is the point of view. Most photographers would think to take this picture from the top of the flower, but you used a unique view.
An excellent photo which fits the challenge.

-Dan Gruskin

Plastic Surgery
by barndog

Comment:
I think that the toy haters are gonna get you on this one... (happened to me too many times, grrrr) anyway thought this was a good pic with a nice studio feel to it /.... 7

Snow
by SamuelDPC

Comment:
iknow that youre going to be getting a lot ofcooments exactly like this....but here goes anyway.
First off there is a finger in the photo...honestly you could have seen what the picture loooked like then taken another one.
Second the picture is crooked.. this is a big nono, and evn if this was the desired affect it really doesnt add that much to the photo.
Last but not least it seems like this photo was taken throgh a window. This is fine aslong as you take the photo at an angle, so there is no reflection.
Overall it seems lik eyou could have spent more time setting up this shot.