verticular
by tnun

Comment:
blah. should have scored higher for sure. I like it.

No lights, no bells, no gates: only common sense
by Zita

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Sorry to see this didn't do a bit better. I think with a bit of extra post processing before entering it could have scored a bit higher than it did.

Subject: Clearly meets the challenge, although perhaps not the most interesting signs.

Composition: I think the composition could be more dynamic. The aspect ratio 16:9 does not, at least for me, work too well with this image. I would be inclined to have cropped it to a more traditional 3:2 ratio. There is no real detail in the dark trees to the right, so you could crop part of the trees away. At the same time, you could afford to lose some of the out of focus grass in the foreground. The road adds a nice line leading us through the image.

Exposure: The image feels a little underexposed. I suspect this was a choice to avoid blowing out the sky, so easy to do when the sky is like this. The light overall is very flat and I think this is probably the main reason for the sub 5 score. I can imagine if this were shot on a day with sun, puffy white clouds etc that it would score a lot better. I don't know what sort of photo editing software you use, but I feel with some simple editing you could have lifted this image a bit and lost the "flat" feeling. A levels/curves adjustment in editing software, brightening the mid tones particularly would help. I have the Nik/Google collection of plugins and use detail extractor quite a lot when the light is like this. It can help. I'd also be tempted to add a sunlight/skylight filter to boost the image. All very lightly applied so it doesn't look like it's "glowing" and lacking in focus.

Hopefully this helped a bit explain my opinion on why I thought it fell short in this challenge.

Pink Flamingos
by rooum

Comment:
Oh what a travesty! I like this Clive.

Plumes De Poulet
by Dr.Confuser

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I can totally relate with you on the challenge topic, not a fan of feathers either for the same reasons.

I love the composition of the delicate feather it works very well with the square crop and the colours are lovely too.

Others have commented already, but I'm quite shocked how much noise has been added during post processing. As a fellow D800 user I know that at 100 ISO you are not seeing much noise at all in a Raw file, so can only assume that this has happened is as a result of post processing.

With that lens/camera combination I would have expected the in focus parts to be tack sharp but they are not for some reason and I think that detracts. The blue/green fringing is certainly another distraction mentioned already.

Without the grain/noise issues I feel sure this would have scored a lot higher.

Sarah

After the Ball is Over
by ambaker

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

I feel you've been a little short changed having me do the critique considering I'd already commented during voting.

As you know already, I believe this to be suffering from a lack of sharpness/focus. Looking at your settings I would say using 1.8 wasn't perhaps the best for getting a sharp image. I am wondering if you were not using a tripod? I think not when looking at those settings.

Had the image been in focus I probably would have bumped the score up a bit, because it would have been a nice colourful still life, which clearly met the challenge.

Hope this is vaguely helpful.
Sarah

For the very, very young Indiana Jones
by Mykkka

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I see you are a new member of the DPC family and this is your second entry.

I suspect the reason for the low score was this image was a little bit too out of the box for most voters. It's certainly a bridge, but when faced with the strong competition in this specific challenge I feel it was not going to fair well. Out of the box doesn't do well here on DPC.

From a technical perspective, the background is a bit too over exposed which leads the eye away from the subject. I LOVE the fact you can just barely see a child climbing onto the structure. I bet the majority of voters missed that.

Looking at the composition I feel this would benefit from either a few steps backwards, or shooter with a wider focal length.

Keep going! DPC can be a tough place, but don't be discouraged. Hang around, enter more challenges and enjoy.

George Washington could have used this
by posthumous

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Been a very long time since I did one of these, so I maybe a bit rusty.

I'm quite shocked to see this only scored 5.6 - I think it's a solid entry and your B&W conversion is good. I like the high contrast look. I suppose the lack of detail in the shadows is what pushed the score down a bit. The voting is at least pretty consistent.

I would have expected this to be much closer to a 6 than it is.

Castlewood Canyon State Park bridge span
by Mddoane

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

I notice you have quite recently joined DPC and have entered only a few challenges. Hopefully you have not been put off by the scoring and will come back for more!

You were up against a lot of strong competition in the bridges challenge and you managed to pull off quite a reasonable score - just short of 6.00. However, I think this image could have done lot better with some small changes in the post processing.

The composition is strong, with nice leading lines and the rocks to the left add some nice foreground interest. However, to my eye it feels slightly over exposed in some places, which could most certainly have been adjusted in post processing. Additionally, I feel the Black and white conversion, whilst suiting this image needs a bit more "oomph". By that I mean strong contrast so the blacks are more black.

I would also recommend you clean your sensor! There are sensor dust spots very evident in the clouds. These will always show up more using a smaller aperture and using HDR software will always make them more visible. However, you can easily remove them in most photo software these days.

With those minor changes I do believe you could have pushed your score over 6

Linking the Old and New
by dwyllie

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Beautifully exposed image and excellent processing.

I expect in Free Study this would have scored a higher as I think the bridge is perhaps not prominent enough. Difficult to capture that bridge however. I recall it to be rather a busy place

I don't have much to comment, as it is a very good image and anyway did well in this challenge.

Hot place
by otto22

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique club

Very difficult to write a critique for the Blue in a free study!

This has the combination of good composition, excellent colours and a good subject. It's a little bit exotic for most of us, so plenty of wow factor for those who like this type of shot.

I can understand why it scored well and you landed the blue.