Morning jewls! (Kitch or beauty?)
by aKiwi

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This is a shot I don't get. When I saw where it placed, I was stunned. I am surprised that it beat a number of shots it beat. On second look, I think I know why.

This is a really decent, average photo (5.2ish) but there is one glaring weakness: that overexposed bit of it. That part ruins the whole photo for me, but obviously when people voted, they took into consideration the photo as a whole. I wish I'd been able to do that at the time. Your focus is on, the colors are nice - but that spot is so overly distracting that people aren't going to see what's good about it.

Oh, and did you mean Jewels? I see you're in Germany - still gotta check your spellings or the English speakers will eat your shot up just for that spelling mistake.

Happy shooting and good luck

Mav

Through Darkness We Awaken To The Light
by trnqlty

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I think I can see two things I love about this photo and two things I could change to improve it.

Loves:
1. I'm a silhouette lover. The silhouettes of the crosses and the meaning your title attaches to them is excellent. Whether or not I agree with your intent here doesn't matter. You've created an emotive photo - one that is more than just run of the mill stock photography.
2. The sky color is brilliant. Yellows instead of reds are really nice to see occassionally in a sunset photo. Nice originality.

Disloves:
1. The contrast hurts my eyes as well. It's a bit much at some point. Not sure how I'd change that though. A tiny bit less contrast or a slightly better exposure metering the sun itself?
2. The crop is kind of far away. I would move in on the sun/crosses and get rid of chunks of blackness - I don't think it would hurt your theme to have a bit less black around the bottom.

Happy shooting!

Mav

Tree Treasure
by Pooba

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

This was a hard challenge. Serendipity can mean this - finding money growing on a tree. However, this SHOT was not serendipitous. You planted it and thus it violates the SPIRIT of the challenge, if not the rule. As to the pic itself - why not put the money on a tree bud? Like it's actually "growing on trees." Or something similar.

The lighting is kinda flat and overall the shot could use a bit more interest. I like the idea, but it could use refining.

Happy shooting,
Mav

Leifur Eríksson - The Viking Who Discovered America
by thepasodancer

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club (and America)

I wish I could see the front of the statue in this shot. There is a lack of context for the shot that makes it not much more than a statue in a corner. I like the clouds in the shot, but it doesn't feel .. whole. Maybe like something is missing?

Oh, and the statement is excellent - whether I agree with you or not (I don't), you DID something with your photo. It MEANS something. That's worth a lot.

Mav

Gas Stop
by sixgunwoody

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club,

Hiya Derek. Nice to 'meet' ya! :)

I think less is more here. I would like to see less of this photo to like it more. I think the roof of the station and the bottom of the photo with the car shadow are both unnecessary. I would make a horizontal crop of this.

The silhouette isn't dark enough for my tastes. I prefer a black or nearly black shape to silhouettes. I also think the light is just a bit too harsh here. The lonnnnnnnnnng shadows are a touch much for me.

This is a pretty good pic that probly finished lower than it should have. Imagine this at a different time of day or horizontally cropped, however.

Good luck and happy shooting,
Mav

Breakers
by Imagineer

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hi Jon - nice to meet you!

You rocked the score, so what is there to say? Well, I would have liked to seen any shots you got of those other 25 that were with you standing a bit more to the right, kind of behind where the waves were breaking.

I think I would have also preferred a closer crop - forcing the sun and the crashing waves to be the only real things in the photo, making each more powerful.

The color and lighting here are what this image holds itself up by. They are superior and very cool. I would have liked to see this IRL.

Nice job here as always, happy hunting and good luck!

Dawn of the Chimney
by russi

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hi Rúnar! Nice to "meet" you.

I honestly don't see much of interest in this shot. The lighting is poor, the silhouette isn't very interesting to look at and the colors are kinda blah. I wish I had something nicer to say about the photo, but even you said you didn't have hopes for it. Keep shooting, good luck and don't submit things you aren't happy with in some way. :) (even if you submit junk just to make a point).

M

silhouetted view
by shutterfly

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hiya Wendy, long time no speak!

I have to agree with two of the comments on this shot - the branches are distracting to a beautiful view, though they provide nice shapes to silhouette. The photo does need contrast though the lack gives it a slightly dreamy feeling.

Something else I noticed here - the view is nice, but not spectacular. I think this photo needs a more concrete subject than a nice view into a sorta nice lake. Maybe a canoe or a fisherman. Not sure, but something to add context.

Good luck and happy shooting!

Mav

Wild Blue Yonder
by pmichaud

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Hi Patsy!

As this image is your highest rated yet, I find it almost amusing to try and tell you how to improve it. Instead, I'll focus on what I see and don't see.

What I see is that it looks like you used a gradiant fill from top right to bottom left. While these are nice effects and I use them as well, the black doesn't fit and the lines it creates in an image like this are distracting. You could have cleaned them up with a healing brush, though admittedly that's more work.

I also see a stunning shot with 3/4 of an inch off both the top and right margins. These areas aren't adding anything to the photo - get rid of them and make the subject larger as a portion of the image.

I don't see a pilot looking into the sun. I don't see the wing. And I don't see anything on the right side of the image to balance this composition except the streak in the upper right.

This is a wonderful image and congrats on your best yet score! Keep shooting and good luck!

Mav

Untitled
by spiller

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Nice to meet you, Lorraine. :)

This is a hard image to critique because I don't know if I wish you'd stepped 10 feet closer or 10 feet back. As it is, you aren't close enough to force the subject to be the ONLY real thing in the photo, yet you aren't back far enough to have captured the entire tree.

This is a nice silhouette, but I believe silhouettes are mostly about the shape created by the blackness. As such, the tree is a tad thick around the middle and is kinda 'blobby' down there. Perhaps a shot with more branches would have been more interesting, compositionally.

I think the clouds at the bottom of the image detract from the clear blue skies upper left. I would have preferred one or the other.

Happy shooting!

Mav