Palermitan fresh fruits.
by quark

Comment:
Your critique - ciao Piero

Ambivalence - I know Palermo reasonably well - had one of the best meals of my life there a couple of years ago with a number of friends.

what I most like about this shot is the kissing couple in the far left of frame - though they're so far toward the edge of frame that they'r almost excluded, which is a compositional critique in itself. there are other strong elements here - the two figures in front of the sign, the lights above and below the stall which parallel each other nicely...

However the faults far outweigh the good points: the blurring of the still pars of the image, the poor colour rendition (surely set to the wrong colour temperature, and nothing gained by it), the more or less pointlessly included area to the right of frame, the blacness at the top of frame ...

None of which are neessarily un-uselful elements, but there isn't enough of interest going on in hte rest of the picture to make them effective elements. It has an effect of being a first attempt at night photography, and the impression of being entered out of excitememnt at capturing a small portion of the impression of lights in darkness - but really there is nothing more to it for me. Not an intersting photo...

I hope this has helped you see why (and of course, it's only my opinion - though the score suggests it's that of a number of others too), and I hope you won't be discouraged by the result: this is a valuable and effective learning place, and the voting results on one's forst entry can be disheartening - stick with it, there are elements here that make me think you could do well in future.

ed

... In shining armour
by timmi

Comment:
Are you quite sure you entered this for the right challenge?

prey
by grigrigirl

Comment:
great shame about the artefacts around the silhouette. Gorgeous shot despite that though

Reaching for the light
by ladpupmoe

Comment:
Almost wonderful - would love to see just a little light on the flower head: it disappears into the black backround area too much for me.

Cranes at Sunset
by eloise

Comment:
Could almost be Kertesz - fabulous shot. Can't mentally twist it enough to fitt tthe challenge though: there seems to be only one element here.

Over
by jimmythefish

Comment:
Good moment - and interesting composition. I wish I could see his right arm though, to see the force being applied.

Zen
by mbardeen

Comment:
Contrasted with what? This is an unfortunately common mistake with this challenge - it wasn't about the photographic quality of contrast but about the compositional one. Another good shot though.

Lilly
by connie

Comment:
I'm afraid you've mistaken the point of the challenge, which is a great shame as this is a beautiful photograph. A second element with which to contrat this lily is rather required.

Toothsome
by casualguy

Comment:
Beautifully done, but there's no contrast between these two elements, which was rather the point of the challenge. Would have made a wonderful duotone entry.

by BassInABand

Comment:
If that black spot were on the left big toe these could be my own feet! The real contrast is between the feet and the stones, which works wonderfully, but i really don't like the big cut-off shadow.