Leap of Faith
by Phocal

Comment:
Wow, came home to a great surprise. Was expecting this to be in the top 20. Thank you for all the votes and the kind comments.

Hues of light
by bennettjamie

Comment:
I did not vote in the last free study but this would have gotten a 5 from me. The color of the sky is amazing and just stunning, but other then that there really is nothing spectacular about the photo. I have been a fan of the square crop from my film days, but it has to be the right photograph to really make it work. In this case it does not, having the tree filling the entire frame and dead center is not a very interesting composition. If you would have used a different crop and backed up from the tree, putting it to one side of the frame it would have made a much more interesting composition and would have gotten a higher score from me. Without actually seeing it, I would guess I would have given you a 6 or 7 depending on how it looked. I entered a tree photo with a square crop, maybe if you had done something similar to this it would have done better.

Fiery Heron
by Phocal

Comment:
Armando_m I noticed that myself and was shocked that there was nothing below 5.

Fiery Heron
by Phocal

Comment:
LOL, just to damn funny to end up with 7.0000. If you only knew how many times the average was exactly 7 over the last week.

Bikes
by beatabg

Comment:
Is more distortion then blue

The Square Wave
by Phocal

Comment:
Neat It originally was a landscape crop but when I was cropping it square for IG it just seemed like a better crop to me. Have always been a huge fan of a square crop, use to shoot specifically for it in my film days. Now IG has kind of ruined the uniqueness of a square crop :-(

I love Canon
by bennettjamie

Comment:
Moved my reply on your thread to the photo:

To start with it has to be an exceptional photograph to do even decent in a free study and unfortunately this is not an exceptional photograph. Keep in mind this is my opinion about the photograph.

There is nothing that really pops and draw my attention, could use a little bit of punch in the colors so it is not so flat. The aperture is not enough to really blur the background (would have been better if she was farther away from the bushes) out so it's a bit busy. The image is also overall a bit soft. I would guess as a result of the slow shutter speed and being shot handheld (only guessing as I am not sure what focal length you selected or if a tripod was used). The softness would not be that much of an issue if the eyes were good and sharp but they are not and could use some dodging to lighten up the eye area to bring in the viewer. Would like to see a bit more space above her head, while I know that the rule of thirds can be broken I found that if you follow it (for most photographs) the composition is much better. Those are my technical things about the photograph. Those combined with just an uninteresting subject I can see why it did not do well.

Ronnie

Sweet Dreams
by Rgarcia

Comment:
beautifully executed

the hangout
by grahamgator

Comment:
Absolutely stunning

tried to get them all in...
by raish

Comment:
As a photograph I think this is terrible.........as a work of art I am in love with it. Wonderful and amazing processing, can't wait to find out how you did it. A 7 for now, I have a strange way of scoring and this will either go up or stay a 7 on my 2nd pass.