Not Today!
by WriteHeart

Comment:
Nice idea. This is underexposed. With snow, your camera meter will make the white a neutral grey and you need to open up at least 1, sometimes 2 stops to get it back to white. Good luck in the challenge.

Bad Boy
by Stagolee

Comment:
This is a neat idea. It would have been more convincing if he was holding the pouch of the slingshot correctly. Just an observation. :D Good luck.

Frigid
by dphillips

Comment:
If you had faced the window directly and lined up the glass parallel with the camera sensor you could have gone with a very shallow DOF, keeping the frost crystals in focus and blurring out the distracting background. From the angle you used, a shallower DOF would have left much of the image OOF.

Just an observation. Good luck in the challenge.

BAAAD
by see

Comment:
No, that's SWEET! :D

Trick Cyclist
by e301

Comment:
Figured since there's a thread running on this right now (Confused About Ed's Photo) I'd move my comments over here as well. :D

I find the photo interesting and engaging. It has enough storyline initially to make me look a bit deeper. I say storyline based on the combination of the cyclist and his shadow. It makes me look twice to try and see what it was that captured the photographers attention. In this case I think the "trick" is the shadow riding the handrail. I also like the play of light and shadows (with the exception of the large block - looks like a planter - in the top left).

Compositionally it has a nice flow using leading lines from the cyclist, to his shadow on the wall, then following the handrail and stairs down and out of the image. Normally the down and out of the frame is somewhat taboo but here it adds a sense of motion to the photo and there is just enough room for the cyclist to "move" into.

PARK-RANGER-010703-copy.jpg
by jblaylockrayner

Comment:
Thanks for the flash tip...I like how this came out. Well done!

Light Lunch
by youngnova

Comment:
This was a VERY creative and clever idea! Honestly, I wonder how it scored as it did, and I'm not saying that just to be nice. :P It's almost like the voters came along, said "ho-hum" 5 (or 6) and kept moving.

If it was me, I'd be tempted to post this for some feedback in the forums. I say that because I like the idea but I'm not able to think of ways to perhaps improve this shot. Tighter maybe? ...but then you lose some context. Hmmm.

Regardless, it was a great effort. Smile and keep having fun! :D

Dark Queen
by bryantbus

Comment:
Wow! The eyes just grab me and pull me right into this photo. Then I start to wander. Two things keep dragging my eyes away from the face; the lighting in the lower right on the skin makes that area stand out, and secondly ...well, I'm human.

Technically the lighting and exposure are right on. Looking at the eyes it seems that they may be a tad soft and that the sharpest focal plane fell on the front of the headpiece. Not bad soft, just a tad. Compositionally I wonder how this would have done if it was cropped to take some off the right (into the hair a little), and some taken off the bottom (up across the chest, just below the hair). Just some thoughts.

I am surprised that this scored as it did. I would have figured this for a 6 - 6.25. Hard to figure sometimes.

Anyway, smile and keep having fun! :D

7 Minutes Old-A View into the Nursery
by Blue Moon

Comment:
Regardless of scoring, this is one of those photos that will be treasured forever. Preserve it well, and pass it along.

The first thing that jumps out at me when viewing this is the babies face and hands. Second thing (just being honest) is the slight blurring and wishing it was a little cleaner focus-wise. That's the mentality that comes forth from spending too much time here at DPC. My wife would look at this and say "Ahhhh, it's wonderful!". Some of her favorite family photos aren't technically perfect, but they're perfect in her mind as they tell a story and enrich our memories.

It took me a minute to notice the wire in the photo. I also didn't notice the blacked out background until after reading the comments left by others. I like the wire, it adds context. As for the blacked out bg, hard to say without seeing the original whether it enhanced this image or not (for me personally).

Overall, an engaging photo quite worthy of sharing. I love being able to do that with Free Studies.

Smile and keep having fun! :D

Black - White
by TCGuru

Comment:
Ok, someone has WAY too much time on their hands!!! :P

I think jaysonmc hit most of the points on his critique regarding your photo. For me the first thing I notice are the eyes. If they "engaged" the viewer this would have gained .25 - .50 point in score at least IMO (I didn't vote on this BTW). The second thing I notice is the greyscale white on the left. Had that been tweaked closer to true white you'd probably gained another .25 - .50 in score.

Just some observations. Smile and keep having fun! :D

Message edited by author 2007-02-08 09:56:11.