Baby with Bear
by kashi

Comment:
I love the eyes.

Possessive
by samtrundle

Comment:
Aww, that's adorable! Fantastic picture.

LIMELIGHT
by davidus428

Comment:
I think if you're going for a cliche, it has to be absolutely perfectly technically done, and I don't think the light quite works. Still very good though.

Poppy Textures
by banmorn

Comment:
Agh, didn't know poppies are so hairy! Congratulations, it's difficult to take an interesting picture of a flower.

~D i s m a l - D r e a m s~
by Juliadavis

Comment:
Very interesting picture. Fantastic composition, really draws the viewer in. And the colour of the baloons is just the perfect finishing touch.

Majestic
by LalliSig

Comment:
Larus? My compliments if it isn't. Bloody Icelanders with their fantastic looking nightscapes :p

Stillness
by Structor

Comment:
Pretty photo. Although I have to say - it strikes me as quite the opposite of stillness - the entire thing's moving! (made me stare at it for longer though)

Cellular Proposal
by JawnyRico

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

Very funny picture - this was one of my favourites in the challenge (partly because it was a nice change from seeing yet another cute kid on phone). Congratulations on the originality.

The lighting is good, the positioning of the models seems just right, and I love the expression on the girl's face. However, as has been commented on before, the background is unnecessarily cluttered. The ring should be in a slightly more central, prominent place, and there's no real reason for the plates on the table and the stuff on the walls - it doesn't add to the picture, it just acts as a distraction. The line of the wall corner going past the guy's head isn't ideal either - really, just a table and a blank piece of wall would have served the purpose much better. Also, I think cutting off the guy's back works well, but I'm not sure about cutting off the girl slightly - since she's the one receiving the proposal, she should possibly be included completely in the picture.

I think the post-processing is very good. The border is just right - it frames and controls the image without dominating it as borders often do. Sepia is a matter of personal taste and doesn't necessarily have universal appeal, but I happen to quite like it.

Anyway, well done on an interesting image.

Any questions - just PM me.

Jelena

So many calls, so little time.
by JLC

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

First of all - welcome to the crazy world of DPC challenges.

As you've already heard from other comments - this image has potential, but there are certain technical issues with it.

Lighting: the flash is bouncing off the wall behind the girl, and it's the first thing you notice about the photo. Try bouncing the flash off the ceiling, or you can set up make-shift studio lighting by making lamp-light bounce off a piece of white cardboard. In these kinds of pictures, the light should never really be pointing directly towards the subject.

Composition: a non-centred composition tends to look more interesting. This could have been accomplished easily in post-processing by cropping off most of the right side (and a little bit of the left to balance it out). Also, I'm not sure if the phones on the bed are prominent enough. Maybe if they were all lined up in front of her?

Post-processing: I would have added a couple of additional editing steps. The whole image seems slightly too red-tinted. This can to an extent be adjusted by using the 'selective colour' function in Photoshop, then playing around with the settings for red. I also would have reduced the saturation slightly (to make the colours normal), increased the contrast a bit, sharpened the image slightly using unsharp mask, and ran it through Neat Image at a low noise reduction setting to get rid of some of the by-products of editing. But then, I'm addicted to Photoshop and have too much time on my hands...

Here's the edit:


Anyway, hope this helps.

PM me if you have any questions.

And most importantly: don't give up! Keep submitting photos, and they'll keep getting better and getter.

Jelena

Message edited by author 2007-04-04 03:28:41.

Irish Eyes
by fencekicker

Comment:
Beautiful portrait! I love the piercing eyes...