A friend from outer space
by aslezak

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Lovely sunset colors and great silhouette of the praying mantis. The strong silhouette of this insect does take on the aspect of some eerie outer space creature. You have a good foundation to work with but the crop/zoom holds it back from it's full potential. There is just too much 'empty' space that does nothing to compliment the main subject of your photo. Your main subject is the insect creature so play it up and have it fill the screen more. Here it fills maybe 20% of the screen. Crop out the the left half and just above the antennae of the mantis so that it fills your audiences vision more and thus increase the visual impact of the photo.

Forlorn
by Chandi

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment and bump up.

Your details in this run aground boat and the landscape around it is fabulous. The tones are very good and have a nice dynamic range. My suggestion to perhaps improve the visual impact of the photo is the choice of crop and where the main subject lies when further strengthening the mood of the piece. I like how the boat seems to be leaning away from the lake water in the backdrop. It is removed from the water and abandoned That mood of abandonment and shunned is something I feel should be played up. I suggest the boat dominated the bottom left quarter and far left edge of the photo. Then the lake stretches out to occupy the middle and right half of the photo. The empty stretch of lake and the boat sitting off in the far corner leaning to the left away from the water would then speak of emptiness and forlorn more strongly.

Open Air
by bauerfan71

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Fantastic capture of this flying vehicle - love how the parachute sails are as colorful as a rainbow. The rainbow colors perfectly compliment the flying into the wild blue yonder of the composition. My only critiqe, and a small one at that, is that I think the vignetting on the edges is a bit heavy - mayhap it would be better to make it more subtle.

Star of Mexico
by eriksawaya

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Great capture of this dancer in the air! His pose is like that of a star in the sky. But he gets so lost in all that empty space of this shot. I think it would greatly increase the visual impact if you cropped closer so that he fills at least 65% of the frame. That way he would truly be the star of the composition.

Destabilized
by tvsometime

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment and bump up.

Whoa! Angled mirror? Great use of a tool to create a topsy turvy world view. I like the presentation of the angles and warping of the physical space to play with one's visual senses. The biggest thing holding this back from it's full potential in visual appeal is the balance of contrast between light and shadow. Perhaps playing with Levels will help make the black tones deeper, get good midtones and sharper whites for more dynamic tones that make the image pop.

Curl
by prashant_168

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Fabulous details on the centipede/millipede from the segments on the back down to the many legs. With all those great details on the insect why just have it compose only 30% of your composition? Bring your audience closer - show off all the great and colorful details - make it fill the frame or close too it. The one other suggestion I have is to loose the big frame border. It calls attention away from your photo and minimizes the visual impact of viewing in this medium - leave the framing to when you hang it on a wall.

Urban poetry
by gpuretic

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Love the pastel colors of the town square. The soft hues in the sky above makes me think that this is morning - just when the city streets are starting to waken. I love the colors but I think it could us just a touch of contrast shadows to make them pop. It took me a bit to figure out why this shot is just good and not fantastic (i.e. an 8 or 9). The light tones of the street compete and diminish the impact of the pastel colors of the buildings. There are two things that I suggest that can help boost the visual impact more. The first is to crop a little more out of the street - not all of it - just some as that it takes up about 1/3 of the composition. The second is to select the street, feather your selection to avoid hard edges, save selection, open it in another layer over the photo, lower the opacity in the blend mode (20 - 40%), and fill the selection with black. That will darken the tones of the street so that it can allow the necessary contrast to make those colorful buildings pop. Legal in Advanced to do. And you might want to play with the different layer modes (Normal, Luminence, Overlay, etc) to see what works best.

Washington Square at Night
by bobk

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment and bumping up.

Great capture of the this scenic spot at night. Love the moon that shines down over the street scenery. This is an inviting spot to take a nighttime stroll. I do have two suggestions that can boost the visual appeal of this street shot even more. First is a good Denoise program. On my monitor I can see a lot of noise in the night sky on the top right. Second is a small change but I feel it can improve the visual impact. Crop out the distracting elements that draw attention away from the arch and the moon above. Crop 1/10 off of the left to get rid of the building with it's lights on, a portion of that lit tree and the trash can at the bottom left corner. I suggest cropping off 2/10's off the bottom because there is just too much empty ground space that is not doing anything to compliment the shot. Closer crop will bring and focus your audience more on the main subjects of your shot - that beautifully light and sculpted arch, the people walking about, and the moon above.

Drifting
by npasel

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment and bumping up.

Excellent tones on the air balloon that really calls my attention to the many squares that compose the design on it. I think the color version is stunning but the drawback would be you don't notice the patterns quite so boldly as one does in this B&W. So I'm torn as to which would have more visual impact. I do have one suggestion that I think would make this shot even more visually appealing. The crop. While the vertical crop complements the shape and height of the balloon it feels 'stunted'/'contained'. When I think of sailing on a balloon I think of the wide horizons and the great blue sky to sail. A horizontal crop would compliment the balloon in that it shows your audience the great horizons that can be explored.

Starry Night
by sns

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Love the twists and turns on that old gnarled tree. It's top branch/trunk seems to be pointing up calling my attention up to the sky full of stars. Great details in this shot. I do have one suggestion in that I think the the warm tones detract a bit from the visual impact. Typically night skies are a deeper tone of black/blue. The warm white light washes out that richness of the sky and diminishes the invocation of this being at night. Perhaps in the processing introducing some blue tones would help strengthen the nighttime mood. Still and excellent shot and well done.