Until you are dead, dead, DEAD.
by Delta_6

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

I think the comments you received during the challenge pretty much take care of the technical issues with your entry. One thing the voter’s at DPC are sticklers for is solid black backgrounds. Your lighting of the rope is excellent and the detail visible on the rope is also very good.

As for the subject and title chosen for your entry, obviously you touched a few raw nerves, as your histogram is heavy on the 1’s and 2’s. This image does not deserve a sub-five score based on its technical merits, so the subject had to play a large factor when all is said and done. The judging was rough for any shot that wasn’t extremely creative and even rougher when the subject wasn’t voter friendly. Keep shooting and I look forward to seeing more of your entries.

Tim

The Angel Of Beauty!!
by Kita

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club:

I didn’t vote on this challenge, so this is my first time looking at your image. First I must commend you for taking on the tougher of the two open challenges and you did it with a self image. I’ve really never dabbled in soft focus before but I believe you choose one of the most suited subjects for this style, a portrait of a person. Over all your technique is as good as I would have expected for this challenge. As a few of the comments you received during the challenge mentioned, the positioning of your arms probably had a small negative effect on your score. I applaud you for trying for a certain effect and although you didn’t quite achieve the look you were going for, you still managed a very strong entry. Nice job.

Tim

next?
by irakly

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club,

I remember when voting on this image that I thought you executed your idea very well but I was confused as to why the two people were standing in the background. Reading through the comments you received, I see that those two people ended up being a love or hate type thing for those that left comments. This probably holds true for the general voter’s as well and could have the reason why this image didn’t break into the sixes.

I would suggest the next time you take a picture with a strong side light that you use a reflector to fill in some of the shadows on the opposite side from the light source. With a little fill light on the left side of the image, the shadows on the face of the girl in the bathtub could have been eliminated. Congratulations on your top twenty finish and I look forward to seeing more of your entries in future challenges.

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

Tim

Peace
by Bolti

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

Looking at the voting histogram for this image I must confess that I am confused. How five people could score this a one I have no idea. Your subject was peas and definitely met the challenge. The idea was simple but well executed. A person would have to be blind to miss the humor. The lighting was well done, as the peas have good color, texture, and the shadows help to give a three-dimensional look to the peas. The only suggestion I have for improvement would be to use a square crop for this image, as the negative space to the right doesn't really add to the composition. Your score was solid for such a simple idea but it should have been higher IMHO.

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

Tim

A Rare Sighting of the Mysterious 20 Foot Long Tiger
by timfythetoo

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

What can I say? You took what could be considered a snapshot and made it into a very good challenge entry. You knew going in that this didn't have enough Wow Factor to win but it is nice to see that the voters can reward a good image with a good score. All of the technical aspects are well done, focus, cropping, post processing.

The only suggestion I have is to take some studio lights and a generator with you next time and light the lion's den properly ;-). Nice job.

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

Tim

Zoom, Peas!
by llerma

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

I thought the zoom effect was a very creative idea for this challenge and I love the spoke like pattern from the peas. However, the chopsticks and the table runner produced a competing pattern for the voter's attention. The chopsticks would have been more effective as a prop if they had disappeared when you zoomed in on the peas or placed in a manner where the zoomed sticks could have been cropped out without removing the original set. This could be worth the time and effort to go back and see if it can be done.

There are a couple of other minor compositional issues you may want to watch for in the future. First is the cropping of the bottom of the plate. With so little of the plate missing, it looks like a mistake instead of something you intentionally planned. The other is the object in the top left corner. I'm not sure what it is but it is somewhat distracting. Since this was an advanced editing challenge, this could have been cloned out.

With regard to the lighting, I see from your notes that you made your image darker during post processing. This may have worked against you, as the peas in the center of the image are not as vibrant in color as the DPC voter tends to like.

For your first challenge you showed a lot of creativity. You will find that when done well, creativity is rewarded. I predict your score will improve as you enter more challenges and gain experience. Good luck.

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

Tim

ZORIA
by nikmatic

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

This image has so many positive things working for it, the shallow depth of view concentrating on the peas, the texture of the hands, the arms providing nice leading lines for the viewer's eyes to follow. However, I find my eyes moving towards the bottom part of the image because the pile of peas in the bowl is larger than the pile in her hands. I think you will find that by cropping the image to remove part of the bowl will help keep the viewer's eyes on the peas in her hands. I would suggest cropping so that the peas on the left side of the bowl are removed. Since these peas are in better focus than the ones at the bottom of the bowl, they become a competing focal point to the peas in her hands. This will also help shift the peas in her hand from the center of the image to a point that meets the rule of thirds.

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

Tim

Pea Green
by mkgillman

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

This image definitely comes across like you took some time and planned for this shot, with the water drops and shallow depth of view. The comments you received during the challenge all give a hint on what are the basic issues with this image. First lets discuss the shallow depth of view. As the pea pod is arranged, there are parts of the cutting board under the pod that is more in focus and shows more detail than the front lip of the pea pod. This really distracts from the focal point of the image, the peas. If you crop off the cutting board entirely from the bottom, with maybe just a bit of the bottom portion of the pea pod, the out of focus front lip become a soft frame in front of the peas. Now lets take a look at the lighting.

I, like you, have used the challenges to learn how to use light. The hardest thing I have remembering to do when experimenting with light is to move the light around to see how the mood of the photograph changes. The light you used for this challenge caused a bright spot dead center of the main subject. This in turn causes the viewer to divert their eyes to other areas of the image that aren't as bright. If your light would have been from the side instead of the top, the bright spot would have taken on a catch light appearance similar to the reflected light on the water drop on the top of the pea. Another benefit to side lighting would be the shadows would have given your image the look of more depth, hence giving the peas more of a three dimensional look.

Even with these changes, this image still would have only scored in the 5 to 6 range, as the subject matter is presented in a straightforward manner. However, this was a perfect subject to work on the technical aspects of taking pictures and your efforts will pay off as you gain experience. You had a good idea on what you wanted to do and you did a pretty solid job of executing your idea. Keep working and I look forward to seeing your images in future challenges.

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

Tim

Edit: typo

Message edited by author 2006-08-30 06:55:46.

Overkill
by timfythetoo

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

I didn't vote on this challenge so this is the first time I've looked at your image critically. With your experience at DPC, I'm sure you aren't all that disappointed with the score for this image. You know what it takes to win and this image didn't quite have what it takes.

The composition of this image is spot on, the intersection of the roasting fork with the lower right corner, the border, all help make the center framing of the flame work. Probably the thing that affected your score the most is the lack of detail in the flame. The dark space formed by the two merging flames is wonderful and really adds to the image but as your eyes follow the merged flame, the appeal diminishes because of the blown highlights. I'm not sure if this would work but it would be interesting to see if a spot light of some sort could be placed on the marshmallow and thus allow for a shorter exposure time to prevent the blown highlights.

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

Tim

Summoning the flames
by TUBORG

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club.

Well isn't this my lucky day. First I get assigned Judi's Fire II challenge entry and now the image that won the blue ribbon. What can I say about an image that scores a 7+? Congratulation! Nice Job! Wow! Bet you haven't heard any of these regarding this image. When someone produces an image of this quality, the score and placing are more a factor of the voter's tastes than the technical aspects of the image. You put all the pieces together and the voters loved it. With fullest sincerity, Congratulation! Nice Job! Wow!

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

Tim