Ol' Smokey
by morganuk

Comment:
:( That's so sad...

Disarmament
by JuliBoc

Comment:
Ooh, a top 10? Fantastic, congratulations :D

Simply, Delicious
by colorcarnival

Comment:
Aww, god that's cute :D Fantastic sharpness and detail too.
Well deserved first ribbon, well done!!! And I'm sure there are many more to come too :)

You're So Vane
by LizArtDesign

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hey Liz, welcome to DPC :)

I gave this image a 4 during voting, and, um... This is embarrassing. I marked it down by at least a point for bad spelling. And now I looked up 'vane' in a dictionary, and, ah, um, I see... I'm sorry!!! Probably would've been a 6 had I looked at it for a bit longer, and had I known what a weather vane is... lol I apologise.

As for the image - good focus, very nice and simple. The reflection is really good, and the subject is interesting. And the composition is great - very nice use of the rule of thirds!

Postprocesssing-wise, I think you've done a really good job. One thing I'd recommend playing with (just in general, as well as for this image) are soft light layers - if you use a low opacity soft brush, you can gently paint on all sorts of bits of light and shadow, it tends to make light in photos more interesting.

Anyway, great score for your first challenge! And I look forward to seeing what else you submit :)

Jelena

Reed beds - Delft
by glennc

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Congrats on your new top score :)

Quite a difficult image to critique really... I gave it a 7 during voting, and I think it looks pretty gorgeous - can't find much at fault with it really. The HDR works well, and is nice and subtle too. The sky is interesting, and the reflections are great. Nice symmetry too.

I'd be interested to see how the same view works from slightly different angles - like, would it be possible to get more of a vanishing point going off to the side, for example... Might not make it better, but it's just a possibility.

Post-processing looks really good, except you've lost a little bit of detail in the yellow grassy bits on the left bank - I wonder if a couple of gentle black soft light layers would bring back some of the shadows?

Anyway, I'm having trouble finding any more constructive criticism, so I'll just say - well done! Great image :) Nice score too. And I look forward to seeing more of your submissions on DPC!

Jelena

Orderly Transitions
by Dr.Confuser

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I gave this image a 5 during voting. And to explain why...

I think this is an interesting, funky image, which meets the challenge. I had no idea what the tools were until I read the description, but they certainly looked intriguing.

However, what I personally don't like about the image is the almost-but-not symmetry. Even though it's perfectly straight, I get this feeling of tilting to the right when looking at the image because of the arrangement of the tools.
I think with relatively simple images (objects on dark background), probably the most crucial thing to focus on is the composition, and for me it doesn't quite work here. It almost does... I think rearrange them very slightly and it would.

Another thing you could play with is the lighting. I actually really like the light you used here, I think it works really well, but it's another possibility to play with - try different types of directional light, and a variety of reflections, and see what works best.

The focus seems a bit soft in places, no idea if that's intentional (wow, at f18 it really shouldn't be). I like the post-processing, I think you brought out the image nicely.

Anyway, hope that helps. Cool image, well done :)

Any questions, just PM me.

Jelena

After a bath
by Jacques123

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

I gave this image a 4 during voting, and after coming back for a second look - I apologise. It deserved a higher mark, but I didn't have the time to go back and review my votes. Why would I give it a 4 on first glance? Well, I think I have this random personal bias against sepia as much as anything... Actually thinking about it, the sepia does work well here - it gives it that sort of memory feel, while at the same time being warm. But I still have a personal bias towards it.

The other thing was that it didn't immediately grab me as a childhood memory. I wondered how a child would have ended up with that particular view of the bathroom, rather than remembering sort of shiny colourful things. I guess that was my other objection to the sepia - it's a very stylised view of a memory, whereas I always think of childhood memories as something intense and in full colour.

So anyway, hence the 4...

As for the image. Interesting idea, which does indeed meet the challenge. It's very well composed - the solid geometry of the tiles is contrasted by all sorts of nice curves which you've got going, and which the eye can follow around the image. I like the water dripping down from the bath - maybe I would've liked to see even more of that (I always think of kids' bathtime as involving lots of fun splashing around, which would leave a trace). Sharp, good depth of field. I'd be intrigued to see it with different types of processing - maybe there is one that would convey the scene better.

Anyway, hope that helps. Any questions - just PM me.

Jelena

Positive Reflection
by tsikakis

Comment:
Really quite a powerful image. The processing works very well, and the simplicity of the composition makes it almost iconic. Very interesting. 10

River portrait
by puzzled

Comment:
Beautiful impressionistic painting :)

Place Setting
by ralph

Comment:
Wow! Zebra cuttlery! :D