Time to Call it a Day
by JonathanJ

Comment:
Sorry but the red in this image does not look natural at all.

MacIntosh Red
by brenelem

Comment:
The focus is a little soft on this image. Did you sharpen the image after resizing for the challenge? Most people run Unsharp Mask (USM) after resizing. In addition, the selective desaturtion is fairly well done in this image but it really doesn't enhance the composition all that much.

Unity
by bradfdenton

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club:

First, let me welcome you to DPC and congratulate you on entering your first challenge. This image was refreshingly different than most of the images in this challenge. Now the question is, did you get the most out of this image. I really don�t think so. First, I think a tighter crop on the couple would have moved the focal point of this image to the hands instead of the cropped off heads. Try cropping on both sides to just about the outside edge of their backpacks. I would also suggest converting this image to black and white, as the bright colored safety vest in the background really distracts from the hands as well. I highly recommend the Channel Mixer conversion method used in this DPC B&W conversion tutorial.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Edit: Fix link

Message edited by author 2007-03-04 17:15:30.

So noisy, SHHH!
by ivisionphoto

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club:

What a lovely candid photograph of a very lovely little girl. However, there are a couple of things about this image that probably hurt your score a little bit. First, as mentioned in many of the comments you received during the challenge, this image doesn�t really convey the feeling of hate. Even a technically strong image will score badly if the voters think you do not meet the challenge (DNMC) description.

On the technical side, your black and white conversion is pretty good but the white of the dress could have been a little whiter to help expand the dynamic range of the image. Another problem with this image is that the focus appears to be sharper on the girl�s forearm than on her face/eyes.

The composition has a couple of things that could also use improvement. I glad you cropped this image to help bring the focus on the little girl. However, the cropping could not remove all of the distractions in this image, like the dark object in the lower right of the image or the object in the back with the letters on it.

And lastly, another problem with cropping this image is that it increases the amount of noise that is visible. When you shoot at high ISO because of the low light conditions, you need to use a noise reduction program before you start your post processing of the image. There are some free programs available on the web if you do a search.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

The Ring
by MAK

Comment:
Back to comment: A creative idea for a portrait but the eye could have been a little sharper. The interesting thing about your composition is that with the eye looking up, the image conveys the �why do I have to pose� attitude. If the eye would have been straight forward, it would have conveyed anger or stubbornness. This is really effective compositionally and I�m going to give you a bump.

Young Mystic
by alecnorman

Comment:
Back to comment: Very nice work with the B&W conversion. The lighting is well done and the eyes are sharply focused. Giving you a bump, as I under-rated it the first time I looked at it.

The Look of Innocence
by islandpaddler

Comment:
Back to comment: Very nice work with the B&W conversion. The lighting is well done and the eyes are sharply focused. The only things stopping me from rating this higher is that the background has a few distractions in it. You might also want to clone out some of the catch lights in the eyes so there is only one in each pupil.

kidnapped by music
by soraya

Comment:
Back to comment: This image doesn't really say portrait to me, as the man doesn't come across as the main subject. The direction he is facing leads my eyes back to the turntables and record covers. You might consider clonging out the shelve brackets at the very top right side of the iamge also.

Think
by bubeltrubel

Comment:
Back to comment: I like the composition and the lighting of this image but the B&W conversion looks a bit off to me. The man�s skin almost looks like it might be green or some other odd color if I saw the color version.

freedom of choice
by nixter

Comment:
Back to comment: I'm betting this image is pretty close to what you were trying to achieve. However, the limited depth of view doesn�t work very well with the head gear, what ever it is. The lighting is pretty decent but the guy�s left eye looks too bright for the amount of light on that side of his face. I�m assuming you did a separate levels or curves layer for the eyes and processed them at the same time.