Masquerade
by idnic

Comment:
Back to comment: A very unique "high key" effect, while still showing a ton of detail. 10

Stories to Tell
by mpeters

Comment:
Back to comment: Exceptional lighting and an image the family will treasure forever. 10

A Tired Sledder Takes a Break
by lil_mo

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

My initial impression of this image was that the focus looks a little soft in the face of the little boy. I'm not sure if you sharpened after downsizing this image (Most people use USM), if so, than you might want to consider doing a bit more localized sharpening on the face. Another small suggestion would be to crop just a bit off the left side of the image to remove most or all of the large snowflake that is hovering on the person dressed in black. This will do two things for this image, remove a major distraction and move the boy further off center, which helps present a stronger feel that he is at the top of the hill.

This image is a wonderful capture and I love the movement of the people around the little boy. Without this movement, they would just be a collection of legs competing for the viewer's attention. With the movement, it gives the image some action to play off the static placement of the boy. Nice find and I really enjoyed reviewing this image.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Still Waters
by NovaTiger

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

My initial impression when I first viewed this image was "What is the focal point of this image?" The left side of the image has some lawn furniture and the right side has some light/colors that seem interesting. With these competing subjects, my eyes went back and forth trying to find a place to stay a while and explore. You need to decide which part of the image is most important to you and crop accordingly. For me, I would crop off the left side of the image and focus on the light and color and how it plays off the water and grass. I would also crop off all of the ground at the bottom of the image, up to the tall grass currently located at the right lower edge of the image. This tall grass when located at the bottom right corner provided a nice anchor for this scene.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

I Think I Can! I think I Can!
by Someamateur

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

You received several comments during the challenge that point out that your image looks flat, washed out, etc. Adding contrast and saturation would help considerably. Not knowing what post processing software you are using, it is a bit hard to walk you through the steps to help this image. Many programs offer an autofix or autobalance option that would help some. If you are using a program with Levels or Curves, I would be more than happy to tweak your image and provide the steps taken to get there. Just send me a PM with your software type and we can start working on it.

One thing you can do on your own with this image to strengthen it is to crop it differently to see how the composition (look and feel of the image) changes. Since the sky has no real features that are interesting, it would help to minimize the sky as much as possible. As is, it is just dead space that adds nothing to the image composition. I would also suggest cropping the left side of the image to remove a significant amount of the bush. As is, it is as tall as the train and fights for the attention of the viewer. An added benefit of cropping off some of the left side is that the train will appear more to be moving through your image from the left to the right. With the train centered in the composition, it feels like it is parked.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

the moonlight sonata, pianissimo
by silverfoxx

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

Let me start off with congratulations on your new personal best score. You've done a wonderful job composing and setting a mood in this image. However, there are a few items that might have kept this image from scoring higher.

First, soft focus is a tough sell at DPC but it does help set the mood in this image. Second, the lighting on the hands distracts from the overall impact of the image. The hands just happen to fall in front of the brightest part of the window and are almost in silhouette. This makes it difficult to see the fingers and in turn, looks a little odd. Adding to the silhouette distraction is the angle of the flute. With the end of the flute being closer to the camera than the mouthpiece, the hands look abnormally large in this lighting. If the whole flute was in the same plane as your face, it might have helped the lighting and provided better balance in the image (Although you might not have been able to actually play the flute after changing the angle, it still would have looked like you were). One other issue for some voters is the use of nudity. The nudity here is very tasteful and brings artistic merit in this image but it really doesn't relate well to an "Occupation" challenge.

Taking a look at your portfolio, I predict that I will be seeing your image on the front page sometime in the near future. You have a very artistic style and all you need is for the right challenge to come along for you to ribbon.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Yeah Man!
by chelsearocks

Comment:
Photographically speaking, this image is decent. The lighting is even and you managed to control the shadows under the hat. The composition shows that you are trying to be creative but the image does look a little strange without the eyes showing. The facial features lack sharpness due to the wide-open aperture you had to use. I suggest you use a tripod next time and close down the aperture, which will require a slower shutter speed.

Challenge wise, the voting pattern in your histogram suggests that many voters didn't feel this was a strong subject for a Pattern challenge. Although the hat has a definite pattern, it doesn't hold the viewer's attention for very long and is almost secondary in the image. Personally, I spent more time looking at the face and the brown curly things next to it (Are those dreadlocks?) than I did at the hat.

Hope this helps you better understand your score.

Tim

I can see a bright light...
by Gordon

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

An amazing capture and one in which I would have never guessed how it was achieved in a million years. My favorite aspect of the image is the textured appearance caused by the waves. The clarity of the sky to pick up that much detail in the water must have been a joy to view.

As for your score, I think the comments you received during the challenge sum it up pretty well. Many people were fooled by this shot and thought it was a bit over processed. However, I think your scored suffered more from the weak tie between the challenge topic, the subject, and your title. The image doesn't really convey a bright light and I am having a little difficulty relating your title to "Famous Last Words". With the large number of 4 votes you received, you were lucky to score in the 5's with this image. Luckily there were quite a few voters that appreciated the image on it's own merit to counteract some of 4's you received.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Diamonds Are Forever
by Dr.Confuser

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

Photographically speaking, you did a very nice job capturing this image under what had to be tough lighting conditions. My only comment regarding the technical aspects of this image is the out of focus nut on the right side of the photo. I've never been a big fan of objects in the front plane of a photo being out of focus but that is a personal preference and I try not to lower a score for such things. Besides, at 1/45 sec, ISO 1600, and F5.3 (Hand held I assume), you did an amazing job with the limited depth of focus you had.

As for your score, I think the comments you received during the challenge sum it up pretty well. People had a small problem associating this image with the movie. I am really amazed that the score didn't suffer more from the DNMC crowd than it did. That probably was related to this being a member challenge and not an open challenge.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim

Grasshopper
by walker1983

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

First, let me welcome you to DPC and congratulate you on entering your first challenge. As for your image and how it relates to this challenge, the thing that kept your score below a 5 is that the angle you shot this image at is pretty much straight on and doesn't have a very unique perspective to it. If you had shot from a lower angle and maybe included a bit more of the bicycle in the image, you might have scored in the high 5's and maybe even a six. What also hurt your score a little bit is that the insect doesn't look sharply focused. I suspect that you didn't sharpen the image after you reduced the size to 640 pixels. Most people at DPC use Unsharp Mask to sharpen the image after downsizing.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.

Tim