Kitty
by Dan_Cottle

Comment:
I think this shot didn't grab me because of the color in the lighting; I felt it distracted from the subject matter and the general feel of the shot as a low-key shot. I'm not saying it's not low-key, and I'm not saying that it should have been black and white, but the highs got lost in the color for me, and that made it less appealing. Hope that helps you see what I saw.

Reaching for the light
by Xilebo

Comment:
My reaction to this shot was I think based primarily on the effect the colors had on the light in the image. They look bright, but really the whole thing seems bright. I'm not one to say that low key has to be B&W, but the red really exaggerates (at least to my eyes) the overall brightness it. This to me seemed bright overall (even with the background darkened as it was) to be low key. I did a quick conversion to black and white; do that and take a look, it might help you see what I think I was seeing in the color version. The histogram might help, too; it shows a spike at the dark end and then pretty level across the rest of the spectrum. Not definitive, but says something. I hope that helps a bit, sorry for rambling on.

Temptation
by scarbrd

Comment:
Can't help you too much with why this scored where it did; I gave it a seven. Had everything I was looking for on the whole, and I thought it was a good shot. Sorry I'm not being more "critical" here.

Low key hobby
by Melethia

Comment:
Deb, I'm here after reading the thread; I didn't score this image highly, though I hope you know I usually like your shots. Setups to me need to be special, and the subject matter here just didn't grab me. It was well lit, though more shadows might have helped the low-key feel jump at you (the "normally" lit table to the right distracted me a bit when I first saw the image), and the composition and execution were spot on. I'm just not big on thread . . .

Out of the Darkness
by Gatorguy

Comment:
Read your request for comments on the thread; this wasn't an image I liked, but this is primarily because of the subject matter. It just didn't interest me, and while it was lit well for and appropriate to the challenge, it didn't do anything to overcome my initial reaction to the subject matter. On that, there is probably little you can do about this kind of reaction; pick a shot you like, and some other people won't. Not a statement about the image quality, but about its appeal subjectively. If you want my vote, shoot puppy dogs and babies

"Good Morning" - Sydney Opera House
by admajic

Comment:
Came over from the thread; disappointing that no one else has offered comments here, but I'll do my best. To start off, the simplest thing for me to say is that this didn't look low-key to me. Instead, it seemed more like an evening sunset shot than a low-key shot. As an image, I quite like it, actually, as I think it's well composed and nicely shot (though I'm not fond of subjects that are completely shadowed, it works well enough here as there are other interesting elements to the photo).

The Ultimate Driving Machine
by Rob O

Comment:
As the others have said, I didn't find the subject interesting enough, and scored it a bit low for that (4), as well as the distraction I felt in seeing the stereo controls right under the wheel (I might have cropped it a bit tighter; my monitor resolution means I need to move the page to see all of portrait images, and those controls jumped at me when I saw the image). Nicely lit, though, and definitely low-key to my untrained eyes.

Night reader
by L o S T

Comment:
I was one of the two who gave you a 10 on this photo; it was my favorite shot of the challenge (the only ten I gave on this one). I obviously really liked it, and am surprised it didn't do better. Wish I could explain the 4s and lower, but I can't.

Tones
by violinist123

Comment:
This was one of my top ten shots. I'm wondering about the really low scores on this (the 1-3s); it certainly doesn't deserve them. I liked the whole feel of this one, with the subject centered, but with the lighting pulling it out of the center, and the nice B&W conversion and the nice tones (no pun intended). A really lovely shot that (in my opinion, of course) should have finished higher than it did.

turners mill wheel-4749.jpg
by griz210

Comment:
Wonderful backstory here, and nice capture, as well. The grass seems a little too bright in the foreground to my eyes (and my stupid laptop monitor), but the tilt of the wheel is wonderful and the placement behind the tree works well for me.