Smokin' Dewalt
by RegencyRiggs

Comment:
Welcome to DPC, Will!

It's not a bad shot, but from the DPC perspective, it suffers from a couple of things...

* It's too complicated. You only have 640 pixels to work with, and voters only look at an image for 2 seconds before voting. Anything complicated will get whacked in voting. You have to create an image that says what you're trying to say in really simple terms, with nothing else to take the viewer's attention. The kinds of things that work as large, detailed prints often don't work at DPC.

* Subject. It looks like your subject is a "no smoking" sign, because the sign is the best lit part of the shot. A more interesting subject will get more interesting votes.

* Lighting, clarity, sharpness, etc. General technicals are okay, but nothing special.

* Meeting the challenge. I may be wrong, but it *appears* that there's more than one light source lighting things in the shot. It doesn't really matter if you're actually meeting the challenge. It's all about appearances. If the voters think you're not meeting the challenge, you'll get beat up, especially if there's any other problems with the photo.

Hope this helps.

The Late Bloomer
by jasonlprice

Comment:
Beautiful. It meets the challenge perfectly. Congrats!

Distinguished
by Melethia

Comment:
I like this guy a lot, Deb. I would have used the original "basic editing" levels, but pimped the eyes more like this version, and used basically this crop (maybe crop a little less tight). But it's really good already, so I may be full of it.

In progress
by Melethia

Comment:
Hi Deb,

I think this is actually a much better than average photo, entered in the wrong challenge. It doesn't really say "new" to my American brain.

As far as the image goes, since you couldn't take it at a different time of day, I think you could get a lot by using levels to make the midtones (a lot) darker. the image isn't really overexposed, the highlights and shadows are in the right place, but overall, the image is too bright.

The other thing would be cropping off the bottom "empty" portion. It isn't really adding anything to the shot, and just sucking my attention away from the important bits.

"Dear Lord, Please Make Him Stop!"
by BHuseman

Comment:
Gotta love it!

a new morning
by ursula

Comment:
Two on the front page at once! You ROCK!

The Old Point Loma Light House- San Diego CA
by JeffryZ

Comment:
You ROCK, Jeffry! Congrats!

The Holiday Stresses Come Again!
by Phnxgirl

Comment:
I'm not really sure if it counts as one light source or not, but it's such a cool idea that I don't care. Nice job.

p a s s i o n
by rinac

Comment:
An example of a photo that's so amazing that it does well even though nobody can figure out how it meets the challenge. Beautiful!!!

Last Breaths
by pete0121

Comment:
4th place with a phone? Awesome!