Finito
by Gracious

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Initial reaction:
Pretty, vibrant colors. Unique but ultimately not effective composition. Fails to hold my eye.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge fine, since it's fairly obvious that it's shot from above.

Composition:
This is where my strongest criticism lies. You have this shot at an interesting angle - the diagonals of the board carry throughout the entire picture. However, the placement of the flowers so that they follow the planks of wood detracts from their impact. A really simple way to increase the visual excitement of your picture would be to position the flowers differently. For example, laying them perpendicular to the main diagonals would provide contrast and more excitement to your composition.

The grain of the wood provides a nice texture to offset the flowers. This is good and I like it, but there isn't enough of it for my taste. I'm a big fan of using negative space to really enhance a subject, and this would have been a great opportunity to do just that. This would have given you the chance for a more exciting position of the flowers within the frame as well. Right now they dominate and don't leave anywhere for they eye to travel. With more negative space you'd have the grain, color, and lines of the wood dominating the picture, then you'd have the splash of color with the flowers.

Post-Processing:
The colors are rich and vibrant, they almost pop out of the picture! They give the flowers an almost surreal quality which I like.

Overall:
Good, but not great - mostly due to the composition.

Hope this helps! Feel free to contact me with any questions you have.
Matt

The Boy with Green Hair
by Kimbly

Comment:
But I want to ask! Please? Can I? Please?

I really liked this shot but am disappointed that it ended up so far down in the pack. Bah. Nice to see you here again Kimbly! I only found this site recently, but I like the work you've done and hoped you would come back!

-Matt

Green on my Mind
by spiderman

Comment:
Hmmm. for me, the subject of the photo was the golfer. The golfer wants to get to the green, thus has "green on the mind". This was a fantastically clever shot spiderman, but I've found that many people don't take that into account. I scored this highly, but am not surprised it ended up down here. Better luck nexttime!

Green Haven
by mcmurma

Comment:
The first picture I scored, and one of my 4 faves for this challenge. Composition is exciting for an abstract photo - I like the interplay of the slight curves and the straight lines - the lighting is good, a few hotspots here and there, but nothing overly distracting - at points they even help highlight the texture of the umbrella. The border is not overbearing and well thought out. Overall - 8

Green Peace
by Gotchya

Comment:
I like the effort that has gone into this photo. The lighting is great, though I feel the border is a bit overbearing. Having the small green border so close to the peace symbol makes it feel a bit constrained, though the large black border on the outside mitigates the effect to some extent.
Otherwise, it's a great shot with a good message and perfect/amusing title. 8

Irish Bagel and Cream Cheese
by GolferDDS

Comment:
Nothing like a little photoshop work to increase interest in a photo. Good use of the contrasting colors and composition. I like the negative space, it makes it more than just a photo of a (green) bagel. 6

Lady in Green
by Azrifel

Comment:
Pretty doll! I like the contrast between the reds and the greens.. Overall, I would have like to have seen more action, something to generate more interest it the photo. As it stands now it's a picture of a doll.. it seems like there should be something more there. 6 for a good picture which meets the challenge.

Timeless. Green.
by SharQ

Comment:
I really like the composition on this shot. It meets the challenge and is a good shot. But it leaves me feeling cold for some reason.. Plus I end up thinking of a line from a song "If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a green dress, but not real green dress - that's cruel!". (Yes.. I know it's more of a suit, yes.. I know I'm wierd.) 7 for a good picture nonetheless!

Infinite Support
by mbardeen

Comment:
Thanks Kim!
I tend not to rate my own photos very highly and I'm aware of the "fickle" nature of the DPC voters. I figured the barbed wire and the lack of "Bridge" would put some people off (as evidenced the 7 people that voted this pic as 3 and under).

Those that are interested can check out the outtakes from this challenge in this portfolio, these pictures show more of the bridge and you can get a sense of how it fits. "Escher Re-visted" was almost entered instead of "Infinite Support" I was torn between the two.

Message edited by author 2003-03-20 07:02:37.

Beachy Head. On average, one person jumps every 3 weeks.
by marbo

Comment:
Hmmm... This looks familiar. I was just there freezing my butt off, taking pictures for this challenge. I didn't enter the ones I took there. Good shot tho! Not sure about the border.