Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by SybsPics:
Wow, what a great shot. Looks like he surfing.

Open Wide, Stick Out Your Tongue, and Say "AAAAHHHH"
by Phocal

Comment by amateurboi:
Greetings from Critique Club

As an individual photograph if not associated with a challenge, this would be a great photo. But in this case, this is a big stretch meeting the challenge merely on title which is reflected in your score.

Also I feel that the eye of the tiger should be in focus rather than the whiskers.

Regards
Midhun

Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by bvy:
The colors here are fabulous. The bokeh below the leaf is a bit grainy. Not sure you could have done much with it. Overall, very nice.

Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by giantmike:
Cool frog. There is a lot of noise in the dark area under the frog, which taking away from the photo a bit, in my opinion.

Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by npasel:
I like the floating effect you captured.

Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by mrbig65:
great one,,,,,,,,

Watching You
by Phocal

Comment by miary:
Nice photo. too much noise.

Mary Jo Becker
by Phocal

Comment by ltlmschrisss:
** Critique Club **

Initial Reaction
I like the leading lines

Subject
These types of cemeteries are usually visually appealing due to their leading lines. I think what is lacking here is a strong focal starting point. I think that if you had used the Mary Jo Becker headstone as your starting stone it would have provided that. Or since you plan to shoot again look for one that has flowers on it or a flag by it.

Composition
I think that your choice to crop out the trees and sky was a good one, since it provides us with the vanishing points. Mitch55 had commented that there were too many of them, but I think that if you had that stronger starting point this would have not been so noticeable to him.

Lighting and Color
First I would like to say that I like the fact that your HDR doesn't look like HDR. This is a personal preference of course and I do feel that in some instances it looks cool, but I also feel that it can get out of hand as well. As for lighting, I feel that overall it's a little flat and on the dark side. I don't know if this is a byproduct of the HDR or not since I don't use it enough to know how it effects things. Also, I think you may want to play around with a partial desaturation or a black and white conversion, the yellow/green really draws my eye away from the main subject of the headstones.

In relation to the challenge
Not a bad go at all for your first Free Study challenge! I think if the picture had told us more of a story (starting focal point) it would have done a little better.

If you have any questions about this critique. Please feel free to send me a pm!

Thank you!

Chris

My name is George
by Phocal

Comment by mrbig65:
wow,,,, great focus ,,,,

Open Wide, Stick Out Your Tongue, and Say "AAAAHHHH"
by Phocal

Comment by Balko:
Wow, that is one big Ahhh :) 8