Watering can
by booboo_goon

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

You used an original idea and you picked a very difficult set of objects to photograph. Let me explore some ways in which you could have improved this.

Composition. I think that the faucet needs a bit more headroom - the crop may be a bit tight at the top. I think I would have used the rule of thirds here and put either the faucet or the can on the thirds yet composed the image such that the whole image is not centered.

Stainless steel and water are very hard to photograph. This image would require the use of levels and curves and some selections to make the faucet jump away from its background. You are basically using tones, and not colors, to make all your distinctions. That is difficult. It appears that your highlights may be blown out - top of faucet and edge of sink. Close attention to your histogram while shooting and while editing is critical to controlling this.

Likewise there are too many parts of this photo where you have lost detail in the darks. In post processing there are number of tools that can help you here. If you shoot in RAW and have PS CS2 or CS3, the tools in ACR can do wonders. Shadow/highlite help immensely. And to a lesser degree levels and curves. If you really want to control the extreme ends of the spectrum you can try HDR.

But assuming you do not have those tools available to you, you did a good job with a difficult subject.

(I finally learned to stay away from reflective surfaces for challenges because the highlights are so hard to control.)

WHO'S PANTIES ARE THESE !!!?!?
by Pipe_Dream

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

What fun to get to critique this photo. I will start by saying that this is a very successful photo. Good composition, good theme, good lighting. So I will focus my critique on things that may have improved it. I appreciate how hard it is to be your own model and get all the details perfect....

The first thing that struck me during voting was that the panties are not as in focus as I would like them to be. There is a powerful line between your eyes and the panties and I am looking for the panties to be as crisp as your face. F5 probably gave you too shallow a DOF. But you were already down to 1/60th and ISO 200 so not sure you have too much more headroom.

Some compositional observations: The flowers are competing with the panties. Perhaps moving or removing them would have given then panties more focus.

In terms of making this a great photo I think if I were editing this photo I would work to reduce the degree to which my eye is drawn to your wife and her arm at the expense of focusing on the two main subjects - you and the panties. One approach would have been to crop her out a bit more. Another would be to use burning and dodging to reduce the brightness of her arm and increase the lighting on the panties.

You have a great photo here. Congratulations on your placement

The Frustration Within
by LERtastic

Comment:
The world is sliding down the hill... Catch it.

Sunrise at Merit Falls
by jasonlprice

Comment:
Fantastic. I sense a bit of oversharpening to compensate for the small image size. I imagine this is stunning in full resolution.

Cold Winter Night
by griz210

Comment:
I'm falling....

Rapids
by fisheye

Comment:
Wonderful. Some make think it is out of the box, but I think this is great.

Inner City Rush
by smardaz

Comment:
I like this. Looks a video shot. This capture the motion very well.

Lands End, Sunset
by william88

Comment:
Great exposure and processing. Foreground really jumps out nicely and the sunset does not over take the photo.

Winter Falls
by digifotojo

Comment:
A bit over sharpened. Great exposure.

Drunken Dreams
by M_West

Comment:
Excellent.