seven petals
by guillermo21

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique club :)

I didn´t vote in this challenge but if I had I probably would have given it a 5. A 5 from me means neither good nor bad.

What I like about the image is that first, it obviously meets the challenge, no doubt about that. The bokeh in the backround and the composition are pretty good. What I dislike however is that the image doesn´t really appear sharp wich is what I have come to expect from "macro "images like this. I don´t know what it is, perhaps it´s the "slight blur" you say you applied to the image in post processing or was it something else, was it really windy when you took this?

Anyway, that is my biggest gripe, the lack of clarity of this image, a bit more contrast and a sharper image and this would have appealed so much more to me personally.

Not much more I can say about the image, like I said earlier, not good but certainly also far from bad :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

yellow
by alexjack

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique club :)

I am going to keep this prett short as I don´t really have much to say about the image. I didn´t vote and if I did I probably would have voted a 5 and just moved on to the next image without commenting. It´s not that the shot is bad, not at all, sharp, good detail in everything that is supposed to be in focus. It´s a bit dark for my taste but nothing that is hurting the shot. It´s just that, and after viewing your profile I think you know this very well yourself, that the shot is not terribly interesting in any way. Sure it meets the challenge, but there is nothing interesting about it in regards to lighting, composition or perspective.

Again, I think you know this, judging by your portfolio and again, this is far from a bad shot :)

I noticed that most of these flowers have 8 petals and judging from that, plucking one petal away and taking a macro of just one flower would have been what I had done if I had been there with this challenge in mind but that´s just me :)

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

The army of Bart! - Eat my shorts!!
by joekent

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique club :)

Well first things first, I didn´t vote but would probably have given this a 6, mostly because I kindof like the lighting. I do think it could have been better, some back lighting would really make the subject pop off the screen more as the figures become kindof flat due to the lack of backlighting. Other than that the lighting is pretty good, I know how hard it can be to photograph plastic subjects and get pleasant reflections off them.

You definately met the challenge, no doubt about that. I think having a better backround/setting would have helped this shot, the "chessboard" backround is not hurting the shot, the shot just could have been much more interesting had you put Bart in somewhat of a more fitting environment, like if you had a small scale model house and put him in the livingroom or kitchen, something like that.

I think you didn´t do better in the challenge mostly because the shot seems pretty effortless, DPC voters tend to reward with high scores if you appear to take a lot of time with your shot and punish when a shot seems to be put together in a hurry. I think that is what hurt your score the most, people probably thought you just grabbed the closest 7 things you had around and snapped a few photos and submitted.

Processing is pretty good, I like the colors, a little more contrast would have appealed more to me personally but that´s it.

Kind regards from Iceland, Lárus.

Back
by TOY

Comment:
Ohh la la! You sexy mother****** :)

Enchantment Under the Sea
by alanfreed

Comment:
Lol! And just what are they doing under that sea! :P

Placid
by lovethelight

Comment:
Congrats kiddo, have a feeling this won´t be the last ribbon you get here at DPC ;)

Purity of Zen
by DrAchoo

Comment:
What´s up with you and 4th place? Even when you originally place what, 9th, you still end up there? :P

Mirror Image
by Someamateur

Comment:
I like this shot but still, could have been better. The tree kindof fills the frame too much for me, I would have preferred a landscape oriented shot with the tree in the right side of the frame and you including all the branches of the reflection. I think a polarizer would have helped by getting the sky and reflection ultra blue, you might want to start using one of those if you shoot a lot of photos like this, trust me, you won´t regret that purchase if you don´t already have one.

Processing wise I also think it´s a bit flat contrast wise, I tried using auto curves in photoshop and it overdid it a little but it´s a step in the right direction, a little work on the contrast and you would be set.

Anyway think it´s underrated in the challenge and should have scored better but then again the free studies are hard to score well in.

High Speed Action
by Someamateur

Comment:
Kindof agree with everything khdoss is saying, looks like you "need" a faster lens for this type of photography, I haven´t shot much basketball but the little I know about photographing the sport, you usually have to have a minimum shutter speed of about 1/250 to safely "freeze" the action and especiall the ball, preferrably 1/500 and up.

Did you shoot this raw? If you do, try setting the ISO to 1600, overexpose the shot about half a stop and then darken in raw conversion, it will really help with the noise. Also the white balance is a bit off for my taste, too yellow, try setting the WB to tungsten next time or adjust it afterwards if you shoot raw.

Personally I don´t think it´s neccesary to get a new lens, I would just have gone further with the panning and have fun with that, when panning fast sports like basketball I find a shutter of about 1/25 +/- 1 stop works best, depends on what the players are doing.

This looks promising so keep it up dude!

Field of Dreams
by Pedro

Comment:
Haha, love it dude! Awesome job from the couple as well, their expression is what makes this work so well as far as I am concerned :)