Death Becomes Her...
by taterbug

Comment:
Pretty nice shot, I like the color toning in it. However, the choice of DOF doesn´t really appeal to me, the purple flowers are stronger in the composition and I would have liked the whole shot better if it were all in focus or just the front flowers. A nice shot though, if it were in a challenge I would have given it a 6. Something a bit sad about it and me being a meani likes it :P

Uncovered
by Mal37

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club, here is the critique you requested :D

No question it meets the challenge, it´s a photo of you in a self portrait so no comment on that. I did vote in this challenge and gave it a 6, a 6 from me means above average, a good shot but lacks that certain something that makes me want to give it a higher score.

I must admit I don´t get the thinking behind this picture. Why you are ucovering a blanket or whatever on a black and white backround with a flag and what appears to be a wristwatch or a digital video camera is completely lost on me, I do not understand it. If I did, I might have given a higher score but I certainly didn´t deduct points for it since this is an international site and I assume this act means something to you . This might have hurt your score with others though, I am just speculating as a couple of people commented on this and I agree with them.

Technically it´s well done, I don´t like the post processing on your hand though, makes it look rather plasticky and odd, like a prosthetic. Lighting is interesting and the composition/crop works well, only to nitpick I would have preferred if you didn´t cut off your ear like that but that is no issue, just wanted to point that out.

Don´t know really what to suggest to you to improve this score other than maybe trying to put yourself in the voters shoes in whether they might understand the thought process behind the photo. Technically it´s decent and I thought it was underrated, not by much but I would have guessed this to just break a 6 if you had asked me before the challenge.

Kind regards from Iceland, Larus.

One Small Step ...
by tate

Comment:
Nice shot, congrats on your second ribbon. This is one of those images where I think "why didn´t I think of that" cause there is a petite 14 month old girl running around my house too :) Cute shot and one that will be fun viewing in the years to come.

Perfect Take Off
by sigrun_th

Comment:
Congrats on your first ribbon! Well composed :)

Simply Banannas
by mbaker

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club! Here is the critique you requested :)

Hey Mark! Congrats on your personal best so far. I think you have lot´s of room to improve here at dpc though so prove me right and do so :)

This shot definately meets the challenge, no question so no comment on that subject. I personally would have voted this shot a 5 and moved on to the next photo, opting not to comment. 5 from me means neither good nor bad. Like I said, this is not a bad photo but it doesn´t speak to me at all, no offense intended ofcourse but it just seems you didn´t put a lot of effort into this shot, when I see this photo it just seems to me like you ran into the citchen, found a couple of bananas and threw them on a black backround and blasted away. What I mean is that you didn´t lay them out in an interesting manner or arranged them carefully and you didn´t bother taking off the sticker on the top banana, THAT is what I mean when I say you didn´t seem to put much effort into this. I am just saying it how I see it so take this with a grain of salt.

Composition is so so, not good but hardly bad. Just that the vantage point is a bit normal and no interesting angle or no lines or such that lead the eye over the frame. Not bad like I said but could be better.

Most people here acknowledge the effort you put into photos so next time make it seem like you did and I promise you the score will go up. The lighting is not bad, you have no highlights and soft shadows so that is good. I am not really fond of the black backround, I think going with a complementary color would have lead to a stronger image, perhaps using blue? Image seems a bit flat, think it could use a small contrast boost and it would make it pop more, trust me. Also one small trick is to sharpen the shot after resizing it, it will lead to a sharper image and a better score, I can promise you that :)

I hope I don´t sound to negative, I´d like to say again that this shot is not bad at all, just nothing that would want to make me give a higher rating than 5, again, a rating I consider "average". I like the settings on your camera, the small aperture and long exposure, it shows that you did indeed take your time with the lighting and setup (I know what I said earlier, just what I meant was that you don´t SEEM to have put much effort into it, I didn´t mean that you didn´t do so)

Blah, hope this makes sense, I am very glad to see you experimenting and I really encourage you to keep doing so.

Kind regards from Iceland, Larus.

Time to Celebrate!
by kbhatia1967

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club! Here is the critique you requested :)

First of all, this definately meets the challenge as I am concerned, no question about that. I didn´t vote in this challenge but if I had, I honestly probably would have given this a 5 and moved on to the next photo, opting not to comment. 5 from me means neither good or bad, there is pretty much nothing bad about this shot. 5.3 is a pretty fair rating for this shot I think, if you had asked me before the challenge how it would have went I probably would have guessed 5.5.

Now, how to improve that score or how I think it could improve. The composition or angle it´s shot from is ok. I still think you should have included all the pearls on both sides though. The lighting is not bad but could be better, I don´t know what you used but it seems uneven, very bluish on the left side and whiter on the right side. Sometimes when I have enough light form a window, I take still life using just that, just use a big window and natural light. I think this shot would have been better with a smaller aperture though, I see you shot this at 4.5 with a shutterspeed of 1/250 wich indicates to me that you did not use a tripod for maximum sharpness. The key to these images is detail so what I would suggest were an aperture of about 8 and therefore a shutter of about 1/60 to 1/80 and a tripod. Then the final ingredient would be the wow factor, something different and odd or wierd like all the ribbon winners in this challenge.

Anyway, hope this helps, just keep in mind this is just my opinion and what the heck do I know after all :) Like I said, this shot is not bad at all and ended up just over the middle in this challenge so keep it up :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Larus.

edit: fixed an embarrasing spelling error

Message edited by author 2006-05-30 13:44:23.

Bringin' the Heat
by jenesis

Comment:
Congrats on your first ribbon! Like this shot and definately think it´s ribbon worthy, it´s just I don´t understand why you didn´t include a catchers glove or a hand "throwing" the ball, the visual impact would have been much more like that but this works (well obviously, duh, hehe) also :) Congrats again!

1400°C
by gaurawa

Comment:
Congrats dude! A bit cliche but who cares, the outcome is very aesthetically pleasing :)

Jalapeno Heat
by Qart

Comment:
Congrats on the ribbon, I think I can safely say that the best image won this challenge.

Going Downhill Fast
by e301

Comment:
Ed? You strike again my friend if this is your shot. If it´s not yours, take this comment as a compliment :)