Model Hopes and Model Dreams
by TCGuru

Comment:
My first thought when seeing this shot during voting was the blue cast to the image. When you are shooting in shade, if the auto white balance is not doing a good job, you can manually set to shade or cloudy white balance and this will correct for the blue cast. You can also fix it in photoshop with the colour balance tool. This also has a very high colour saturation with the red and green complimentary colours, and the bright happy look is a little in contrast with his cool model expression. With a shot like this, the focus is his eyes, so be careful about bright blocks of colour which will distract from his eyes. For the composition and crop, I would consider maybe giving the photo a bit of an angle, so he is leaning back into the frame, with his head more upright. I'd crop off the bottom of the frame, so you don't see the checkered pants, desaturate and darken the background, and lighten his eyes a little in PS.

almost complete...
by egamble

Comment:
This is a nice family portrait, with some happy smiles. I wonder if perhaps the angle tilt is a bit too much. The composition of the pose is not the best - the heads are all squished into the edge of the photo, and particularly the girl is struggling to be in the shot. Perhaps a vertical shot might get them all in frame better, or with such differences in heights, maybe a sitting down pose would be another option. I like the BW, although pay close attention to dynamic range in these shots - the highlights are just a little overexposed. Overall not a bad image and I'm sure the family will like it, but portraits have to be exceptionally good to do really well on DPC. :)

Reach
by goc

Comment:
It's hard for a flower photo to get a good score from me, because it's hard to do something really special with a flower. Flowers are nice, but I guess not my thing. This shot is nice and crisp, and the depth of field is just right. The composition is not bad, although I would consider cropping some more off the top to focus the shot more on the stamens. They are the subject of this image, and the flower outline at the top draws the eye away from the subject. I like the soft lighting, and the shadowed yet still visible depths in the centre of the flower. The overall colours are dark and muted, which is something different for a flower, but the image as a whole is leaning a little toward dark and murky brownish. Giving the red and/or yellow channels (in colour balance) a slight boost might give the colours a little kick without changing the fundamental colour scheme.

Message edited by author 2008-07-08 05:44:02.

- s t a r e -
by Alain

Comment:
Hey, hey!! Congratulations on your ribbon, and the PB you were hoping for. :) Great image, and one of my 10s for this challenge!

Oil Painting
by vw8802

Comment:
She looks a lot like this shot.... This is a much better shot though. I'd like to see more shadow detail (not THERE, just in general) Pretty much everything but the reflection highlights disappears on my calibrated monitor.

I wish I was a Cowgirl
by stevieian

Comment:
Hmm, I recognise that truck, and that pose, and that hat, and that barn... Still don't know who's shot this is, but I've got a bit of cowboy deja vu here... :) I'll have to go and look after I pick a score... Ah yes, stevieian. I like the other crop without the trees, but this image is larger, which is nice. I'd still prefer to see her face. :)

Portamento
by Brin

Comment:
The Canon 400D typically underexposes shots like this. Some manual exposure override is needed, or some editing can help brighten it up.

Vertigo
by Angioman

Comment:
I feel dizzy just seeing this. Great shot, although a little sharpening on her face would really help.

Family
by Photomom1981

Comment:
Nice composition and comfortable tones, but too small.

Drop
by delin

Comment:
Some shadow dodging would really help bring out the environment to support this wonderful action capture.