And then she kissed me!
by dtremain

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well I want to start off by saying I probably would have voted this image a 4, 90% of that is I feel this image is shoehorned into the challenge by using the title to explain the photo, sorry but honestly, that´s how I see it. I just don´t see any extreme emotion in the photo itself, sure, the fireworks cleverly form the shape of a heart but where is the emotion in the picture itself? Sure, the title kindof explains that but I don´t really like when you need the title to explain the photo and try to avoid that at all times if I can, the photo should be able to stand by itself as an explanation as to how it meets the challenge, otherwise I could pretty much take just about any photo and explain how it fitted the challenge description.

I am really perplexed at the settings you used for this image, I usually use a much longer time and f11-16 aperture but I am glad this worked out for you, must have been difficult to time this properly. I use the other method, set up tripod, long time (usually 5-30 seconds or even longer) and f11-16 to make sure I get all of the firework, from start to finish, you must have known where the fireworks were going to explode :)

The photo then itself is pretty decent, the fireworks are well exposed, again I really like the shape of the blast making a heart and all the technicals and all that are pretty good. Sure, the composition is centered, but I don´t really see how you could have done anything different about that. Makes the photo maybe a bit like a "documentary photograph of a firework" since there is absolutely nothing else in the frame. I usually want foreground with firework, aurora borealis and lighting photos since that´s the only way those photos stand out from the rest, by themselves nightshots of these phenomenon are not really interesting to me.

Maybe had you taken a much wider shot and had a couple kissing in front of the firework, they just seen as silhouettes, this would have gotten a far better score, at least from me :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Faceless Hate
by Antoni0

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

I see this is your first entry on DPC, welcome and I hope you don´t let the relatively low score scare you off.

First thing you need to do if you want to score well here is to make it look like you put some effort into your shot. I don´t know whether you did or not but to me it just looks like you found a bag, a knife and a shirt and took a photo, did some minimal processing and slammed it into the challenge. It doesn´t appear to me like it´s very well thought out, that´s what I am trying to say.

Lighting is also not really the best, seems you used the onboard flash for lighting wich leads to very harsh lighting, harsh shadows and the likes. You probably wanted it that way but I am just saying it as I see it and what I like and dislike about the picture.

I do like the emotion, the stance and the bag over the head. I kindof dislike the t-shirt though, well the smily face anyway and think it really kills the mood of the shot, if it had just been the text the feel of the whole shot would have been different, cause of the smily face this comes across as some kind of joke wich along with the lighting and all that lead to the low score.

I do think this shot was underrated and I don´t know why, just like I think mine was overrated, sometimes I don´t just understand the DPC voters. Think this deserved to be a bit higher anyway as it has a lot more emotion in it than a lot of pictures that finished above it so keep at it, you´ll get the hang of this place.

Just remember to make it seem like you put some effort into the shot (that bit worked like a charm for DrAchoo and me in this challenge and is probably why we ribboned) and work on your lighting technique next time and you´ll be fine.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Romantic Evening
by Nerve

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

I don´t really have too much to say about this image but I´ll do my best. First of all, I would have voted this shot a 5, means to me personally it´s not a bad photo but not good either. It definately meets the challenge, no question.

It´s just very hard to light glass, I have tried it and usually I think it works best if you try to put your lighting somewhere to the sides or way up or way down, as far away from the camera as you can get while still lighting the front side of the subject. You also have to be real careful about what is in the vicinity, cause when you shoot stuff like a wine bottle, or stuff that is curved i´ll pretty much show everything that is around it, like it does with those flower shaped lights (wich I actually like though). You essentially have to "package" the subject in, using white and black cards and just leave holes for the lighting and camera. That or get a lightbox :)

Having a candle in there makes it even trickier to light, you have to find out what setting works for the candle, so it doesn´t blow out as it did in this photo and then set the rest of the lighting to work around that, that´s pretty much the only way to do it if you want the candlelight to show well.

As for the rest, it´s all pretty well done, image seems clear and in focus, I don´t mind that the rose in the lower left corner is out of focus. You still should USM after resizing, not before, it´s generally the last thing you should do in the post processing phase. The white balance is a bit too warm for my taste but I am also glad it´s not neutral as it would lose that warm lighting from the candle so somewhere in between would have appealed more to me.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Health
by Luguer

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well I just gave a critique on a very similar picture, (the one in the 26th place) and I can almost copy paste the comment I gave him, but first off, welcome to DPC and this is a nice way to start your career here, I did pretty much the same when I joined, scored a 6.1 something I think so keep at it.

It´s a nice shot, well done and I would probably have given it a 6 had I voted in the challenge. It´s pretty well lit and definately meets the challenge. All in all it´s pretty well done technically. I would probably have used something else than water in that glass, probably white wine and waited till it was not so misty, I think that mist on the glass is not really to my taste. If you wanted to give off the impression that the water is Ice cold, I would rather have suggested you just put an ice cube in the glass and water droplets on the outside, that would have done the job more pleasing to at least my eye.

I am not really surprised it didn´t score better, while well done there isn´t really anything that pops out from this picture, kindof mostly lacks that "wow" factor and I don´t know what that could have been. Something odd in or on the objects in the photo would probably have done the trick, like a worm coming out of one of the apples or a shark swimming in the glass (printing out one of course so it would fit, hehe) . Also I think personally I would have voted this higher if the backround had been an out of focus restaurant table instead of black but that´s just me.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Handling pain
by odradek

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well first off, welcome to DPC, not a bad start to your career here. I do like the shot and would probably have given it a 6. It´s well lit, or rather I should say nice choice of lighting, I often use just windof light myself and I really like it. The DOF is good and I also like the cool WB, it gives off that extra sense that this is taken in a clinical setting as a hospital. The tape on the hand is a nice touch. I also like the composition.

To gripe a little bit, I don´t really think this meets the challenge all that well though, I don´t really see any extreme emotion but I would have given you the benefit of the doubt, frankly I can say the same about my shot too so there you go.

Also, even though I like the negative space composition, I still would have cropped just about 5-10% off the left side as that dark spot at the edge there is bothering me just a bit and draws too much of my attention.

Oh one more thing, I would really watch out for blown highlights in your DPC submissions in the future, the voters usually REALLY hate them and rank down just for that. I personally don´t mind but thought I´d mention it, voters here can be very anal about blown highlights.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

The Warmth
by shalrath

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

I don´t have much to say about this image so I´ll keep this short. I do like it and probably would have given it a 6 had I voted in the challenge. It´s pretty well lit and definately meets the challenge. I would maybe have included some backlighting from the right had I taken this photo but not neccesarily sure it would have turned out better. Painting with light is well done and suits the subject. All in all it´s pretty well done technically.

However, I am not really surprised it didn´t score better, while well done there isn´t really anything that pops out from this picture, kindof mostly lacks that "wow" factor and I don´t know what that could have been. Maybe a goldfish swimming in that beer? The grinch reaching for the peanuts? Also I think personally I would have voted this higher if the backround had been an out of focus bar table instead of black but that´s just me.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Fill your life with joy
by LalliSig

Comment:

Originally posted by RulerZigzag: How do you get these women to model for you! Great jumping !

I ask really nicely :)

Adagio in B Minor
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well well, I get assigned to one of your photos again, hehe :)

Again, I don´t really get how it ties in with the challenge, to me rythm was more about repetition of something, had maybe a couple of the boys been in the same position jumping into the lake or something, that definately would have met the challenge as I interpreted it but frankly, had I voted I would have given you the benefit of the doubt, however that doubt still would have prevented me from giving a very high score. Think I would have voted this a 6 because I really REALLY like the b/w processing work I am seeing from you lately, these tones really appeal to me and look very film like, wich is a huge compliment. Frankly am amazed you can pull off images with this b/w look with a p/s camera so coudos from you.

Composition is also very good, personally if I had processed this shot, I would have cropped it to a more square format, taking off the shadow at the bottom and a little bit off the trees at the top but I can understand why you decided to keep the crop as it is, it just would have appealed more to me personally if it was more square cropped.

Not really much more I can say except nice work, I dig it. Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Balloons in the Sky Like Notes on a Scale
by Buckeye_Fan

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

I don´t have a whole lot to say about this image so I´ll keep this shot. First of all, I don´t really see much rythm in the shot but I definately would have given you the benefit of the doubt and voted as it met the challenge, I probably would have given this a 6. It´s got great colors, both in the baloons and the sky. I don´t really understand why you used noise ninja on this shot, it´s taken at 100 iso and I suspect that created the halo´s around the baloons, something wich isn´t bothering me much but still would have been a better photo without the halo´s, whatever is causing them.

It´s a very pleasant photo to look at, lacks somehing to make it exceptional though, like a killer sunset sky or something but as it is it would probably make a decent postcard.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Parallel
by jerowe

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club :)

Well hello there buddy, what´s up! Personally think this image is underrated but still, I can understand the score. Think it mostly has to do with the fact that waterfall photos like this are very frequent there at DPC, especially during the summer months so you really need to put something extra into them these days to get high scores. You are of course aware of the blown highlights and definately think that hurt the score. I don´t really mind them, of course I would want more texture in those areas but they don´t really hurt the shot much I think, just a lot of DPC voters can´t stand them and draw away points for that.

At least the majority of the voters gave you a 6, that´s good. I don´t understand the high number of 4 votes, maybe people who are tired of waterfall photos like this and maybe some that didn´t really see any rythm to the photo.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.