Fireworks
by photogenix

Comment:
Good colors and nice black background. Captured at an optimum time. Lighting and exposure good. Composition fine.

Lampyridae Must Live Outside
by eweik

Comment:
A kid playing with a firefly brings back memories of early childhood visits to Kansas. A good darkness activity. Composition, color and exposure are fine in this image. Good solid black background.

Items that will hold back its score are that the focus is very soft and the firefly looks artificial. It might be better if the child's eyes could be seen. Many viewer's might not make the connection between firefly and darkness.

Another Dark & Lonely Storm for Mr. Sharky
by mihaibadic

Comment:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Perhaps it is the snapshot-like perspective... perhaps it is the large amount of noise in it... perhaps it is the weak tonal quality and/or overexposed surface on the right... perhaps it is the concept itself... but if you combine all of that it is hard to imagine reviewer's giving this image a very good score. Sorry. If it means anything to you, I gave it a 10.

Stargazing
by timlu

Comment:
Good way to convey a pleasant dark activity. The image is great as long as viewers don't notice the sky is overcast. LOL The perspective is good and the blue tones in the sky touch off the composition nicely. The silhouette works well to.

On the technical side there is a lot of noise in the sky and you should consider applying some noise reduction to get rid of it.You have no control over the white specks in the sky but they are still distractions just the same that will affect your score.

Outside the noise this image should do well in scoring.

Noir
by nico_blue

Comment:
A very haunting image. Making the eyes black holes is a stroke of genius. The tonal range is good and technical quality and composition itself of the image fine.

The are some minor technical issues that will affect this image's score.

There are a number of tiny white specks that are distracting to the viewer.

The fingers closest to the camera are out of focus and orovide a minor distraction as well. That may have been intentional but will not appear that way to viewers.

Lastly, the transition areas from dark to shadow on the left side of the image looks unnatural. But that is probably a necessary artifact of your post processing.

Overall this is a very fine image that should score in the upper tier of the challenge.

Dark Lantern
by MackFlix

Comment:
An excellent lightning bolt capture. The clarity is outstanding. You can take pictures all night and not get one that nice. The bolt itself provides wonderful lighting for the scene.

Just a couple of small items. The bird feeder or whatever that is competes with the bolt for attention and is a little distracting in the image. It appears to have a little electronic noise you may want to remove if you make a print of this shot.

It could be that the pole supporting the object is just a little crooked itself but you might want to check your horizon and rotate it ever so slightly counterclockwise if that is needed.

Congratulations on a great capture!

Message edited by author 2005-06-22 02:17:01.

A safe harbour for the night
by MudHut

Comment:
This is a nice tranquil sunset. It makes the viewer relax. You have not oerexposed the moon which is very easy to do in these images because it is so many f/stops brighter than its surroundings.The technical quality of this image is fine.

This is fine as it is but would have extra punch with sunlight on the wispy clouds above the lighthouse and/or a pleasure boat coming into the harbor.

Still I am visible
by sandeepviswa

Comment:
Backlighting the bottle is a great idea and you have a solid black point for the background. It has no more than a tiny amount of electronic noise.

There are a couple things that will hold back a high score for this image.

The general image technical quality is not that high. For the size of the frame the main subject is not very big. You may want to consider taking this in portrait mode.

The small lighted red background is more distracting in the image than supportive.

The border of this image is very, very distracting. You are probably trying to emphasize the idea of darkness through its contrast with the solid white border but that will not work for most viewers.

Solitary
by Keith Maniac

Comment:
Very good interpretation of the challenge topic. Nice expression even though facing away. The overexposed openning to the outside world works perfect in this situation. The hint of detail beyond the guy's ear without really showing it is a nice touch. Good solid black background. This should score reasonable high.

Darkness of his Soul
by bandit

Comment:
A very difficult low contrast to pull off but you have done it spectacularly well. The detail is great without much electronic noise. The pose and composition are good. Nice facial expression capture.

The only problem you will have with scoring is that some folks will not have their monitors properly calibrated and won't be able to see this fine image well enough to give it a high score.

Message edited by author 2005-06-22 02:23:56.