Order pizzas
by whiterook

Comment:
This should be terrible, shouldn't it? I mean, there's no real subject, it's cluttered, the woman is blurred... So why do I keep coming back to it?

There's something about this shot that's great to me. It has a very 'authentic' feel, whatever that means. Reminds me a bit of William Eggleston.

I am distracted by the light not being pure white, and a touch by the perfect centering of the coke machine.

Anyway, this shot'll get killed in voting, but I think it's great. So I'm upping my vote to an 8.

day dreamed
by crayon

Comment:
This is a beautiful shot that I expect will get slaughtered in voting for being too abstract. Don't let them throw you. I say 9; would be a 10 except for the light spot in the upper left, which distracts.

I hope I'm wrong and this does very well!

"Queen" Victoria on Canada Day
by BeeCee

Comment:
Hilarious! Great capture.

Hanging Out
by angela_packard

Comment:
high-key treatment is interesting; I think it works for your subject but might work better with a simpler/cleaner background. Composition has a little more foreground that I think is necessary; it doesn't add to the shot.

These sorts of treatments are underappreciated 'round here - I like it. Good work.

Checking out the Garden
by sfmorris

Comment:
Very nice job! colors are great, bokeh is beautiful, though a touch more DOF might have been nice - the moth comes out a hair soft.

Love the composition. Nice capture.

Weekend with Jake
by manic35

Comment:
This is a fabulous shot. The expression is priceless, the background seperation is perfect, the composition definately strengthens the image. Lighting is very good.

A couple of critiques, things I only mention because the overall image is so strong:

Nose is slightly OOF. You likely know this. It does distract a touch.

Eyes seems slightly milky - it'd be nice if the pupils were nice and black.

The tuft of hair of the left side of his face is a little distracting. Maybe caused by the collar? You might be able to clone this out under Advanced rules, though it might make me nervous to do so.

Great job. A 9 from me.

Pure Thoughts?
by namast3

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club! Thanks for the opportunity to critique your shot.

Pros:

I really think this picture has a lot going for it. The expression is great, background is perfectly black, composition is interesting and effective. The B&W conversion is perfectly adequate, though perhaps a little more contrast would have been good; better than most of mine, anyway. Not that that's anything to brag about. Which raises the question, why did it score well below average? This brings us to...

Cons:

You do have a few technical and compositional issues here.

First, and this is almost certainly your biggest problem, is that the shot is a bit soft. At f/5.6 the lens should be performing well, but 1/2 second is very long for a portrait, particularly up close - any tiny movement will lead to blur. It also looks like your light was quite low, so your autofocus might not be at its best. So step 1 - brighter lights! Menards halogen worklights. Hot, but cheap. Also it doesn't look like you did any sharpening? That would have helped, some.

Second, and speaking of lighting, some of the shadows are a tetch harsh; not terrible, but around the eyes and from the hair. Of course, a halogen worklight will make this worse, not better - so bounce it off a wall, and use a reflector (tin foil on cardboard) to provide some fill from the other side.

Finally, the bit that I believe is her shoulder should be not there; it's confusing and distracting.

The Challenge

This was a very open ended challenge, and I think you met it fine.

Overall, I think this is a good shot with great promise; I'm frankly surprised it didn't do somewhat better but sometimes you just rub the voters the wrong way with a perfectly good shot. I hope you stick with us, and I'd encourage you to try this shot again with a few of the technical issues fixed. Feel free to write me if you have any questions; I really do like this picture.

-Evan

1, 2, 3
by JackieK

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club!

Pros:

You have an unusual and creative composition; I love to see experiments! I think the interesting take helped keep peoples interest up, and got them to overlook some technical issues.

Cons:

As I suggested above, there are technical problems with the shot; it's a bit noisy and blurry. The feathers are likely blurred from a little bit of movement between the different shots? Your hand is quite out of focus on the left side of the shot.

The Challenge:

This is one of those challenges with a lot of room for interpretation; I can't claim I really get what you were going for here, but the sense of movement from right to left, and the changing number of fingers, does imply some transition.

Thanks!

-Evan

The last door
by Valdo

Comment:
beautiful shot. great work with the B&W, great contrast, wonderful texture, and waldo (waldette?) is hidden just the right amount.

bump to 10.

Clearing Life's Hurdles
by GeneralE

Comment:
PP doesn't work for me, sorry. At least the whole horse should be the same - it looks like he has no front feet.