A Brutal End
by volcom36

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

First of all, congratulations! I was looking for another great picture I do remember from this site, in order to compare it with yours. I went through the 25 pages you get after searching for 'fish' and did not find it. But I found that yours was the best from the photos with lots of fish!

So what's a picture of fishes about?
First of all it is about great shapes. The shape of an open mouth is striking and you did well to place it in the center of your composition in order to draw the attention. The tail is another prominent shape and it works well in a corner, but the bottom right part gets a bit lost in the chaotic background.
Secondly, it's about patterns. Again, the diagonal alignment works very well and the one fish lying in the other direction (tail) disturbs the pattern nicely. The pattern would be more effective if it was a bit more regular, but I suppose you could not rearrange them before shooting.
And lastly it's about great shiny colors. Here you missed a bit an opportunity to trigger the WOW-reaction which is so important on this site. I would have played a bit more with curves and saturation or even better tried the LAB technique described here: //ronbigelow.com/videos/videos.htm

From the technical side, your photo is very good. I'm just not sure about the narrow depth of field, it does weaken the pattern and is perceived as a fault when it is not obviously intentional. I would have used f/5.6.

With a subject which is not necessarily the favorite pet of most of the voters, you did really well. I'm sure you have a great future on DPC! If you have any questions about this critique, please contact me.

crazydaisy
by korpen

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

My first impression was of strong weirdness. It comes mainly from the irregular radial angles and is reinforced by the rolled-up petal and the faded colors. The square composition delimiting the round flower makes the irregularity of the petal even more obvious than any other composition would be. All this conveys perfectly well the trait of craziness you needed from your chosen username.

The technical execution of this photo is perfect, as far as I can tell. However, I am not sure if HDR was useful here. Unlike your entry in Flowers II, where you visibly increased the range of color tones, the effect is more subtle here. The first time I saw your image was on a cheap LCD monitor and the colors looked terribly flat. The second time was on a high-end screen and it looks fine. HDR seems dangerous to me for web publishing, if not used in order to achieve tones with higher contrast.

I think you took the challenge seriously and created a meaningful picture. In other words, you produced a very fine piece of art, where every element fits neatly together and creates an original mood. I guess you knew before entering that it is not necessarily the most DPC-friendly of subjects, therefore your nonetheless respectable score shows that it is very well done!

If you have any questions about this critique, please PM me.
Mike

Coffee_Break
by ambaker

Comment:
Hello teammate! Great post-processing, the subject pops out nicely now. I guess voters are more used to aesthetic water drop pictures and do not appreciate a real splash anymore...

The Crow
by vawendy

Comment:
I would like it so much more if the bird would be on the left and look into the negative space! Great tones.

supremegoat
by skewsme

Comment:
I love it, an easy 10! I would not be astonished if it is the new masterpiece from posthumous. Otherwise you should get a ribbon from him!

Shadow Walker
by Nuzzer

Comment:
Crop the upper third and the third on the right. Then you have a spectacular winner!

lighthouse
by jdannels

Comment:
I don't like that the lighthouse base in on the same level than the horizon. But what a terrific place. There are so many elements in there which would make a great picture on their own! You chose to put the all in... Why not. Go and get you ribbon!

inhabiting_trees
by Pooba

Comment:
I see a great picture in a picture here. Do you also see this tiger face in the trunk (about 1/3 from left border and 1/2 in height)?. That might look cool from close-up!

[walks away to take his medication, then comes back]

The dead wood should be more sharpened (or a trick with curves, layer blending, side lighting). Until you want to touch it and feel its texture!

- username : SPIDER -
by andrewt

Comment:
What's the most important feature in portraits? The eyes

Your picture just made me realize that the most important feature in spider-portraits is the hair. Which looks fantastic here!

But for stated reasons the eyes are distracting here. Probably because they feel a bit unnatural with their green highlights. (Of course I have no idea what they actually should look like!)

theknitter
by Lorene

Comment:
Too much fingers (tough subject!) and not enough of these gorgeous colors (needles & knitting). I am sure this is real knitting in action, but for a photo one could twist reality a bit for a nicer pose/composition.