What have I done?
by bood

Comment:
Morbidly fascinating! A strong contender in what I feel is a fairly weak challenge. You should do well with this despite the voters who will not like the death theme. Great job.

Extreme surrendering
by Krisby

Comment:
Not the best picture and there are several suicide shots but I have to say, the "I'm sorry" note is a great touch. Makes me sad despite the fact that it isn't the best picture. Work on your lighting...the hand has blown out highlights. Again, great job on the note...you were close...

Why MY Village, Lord??
by Art Roflmao

Comment:
Screw the voters who will mark you down because they hate woodies. This gave me a good laugh. Great job!

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
by scalvert

Comment:
Worthy entry...I don't think you'll score high but you gave me a laugh anyway. good job!

Dreaming
by sz1_

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

Nice concept here that I think you pulled off fairly well. The dark dramatic sky gives an eerie feel to the photo and is a good contrast with the brighter/white foreground. Perhaps would have been better if the tree was a little more well lit. I feel it's too dark for the foreground. The footprints in the snow in the foreground (not the ones made by the walking man) are a bit distracting. It may be all natural but I'm left trying to figure out if the walking man made them or if they were already there. In any case, it served as a bit of a distraction for me. This next comment may be really nitpicking but for some reason the snow around the tree and leading to the foreground almost has a shiny reflective type surface which seems out of place with the more powdery looking snow on the right side of the picture. A suggestion I might make is perhaps the photo would be enhanced by the man wearing something white so he pops off of the dark background. As it is he almost blends in with a quick look. Compositionally the photo is good though some may have been annoyed at the man's shadow trailing off the edge of the photo. Again, I think you had a nice concept and came really close to having something really special here. Brighten up the tree and the man a bit more and I'd think you be a contender for a top 50 shot in a difficult Free Study challenge. Keep up the good work.

mary jane
by simplesilent

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

I really like this shot on first impressions. I think your lighting is very good here...nearly perfect with the possible exception being a bit too dark on the right eye - but that's really nit picking. I love the shadows captured on the face...quite excellent. I'm not sure how I feel about the long flowing curtains. Something seems off about them. For the most part I like them but as I'm trying to imagine what is going on in the photo I'm left at a bit of a loss at first. After really studying the photo it appears to me that what she is doing is looking out of the curtain to something below on the street (I imagine she's up a floor or too looking down). In retrospect, all of this is excellent because your photo indeed tells a story when I can imagine she's looking at something out the window from a second story window and I'm curious what it is. Unfortunately you have about 2 seconds for the average voter to "get it" and I don't think it is obvious enough at first glance that she is looking out the opened curtain. Doing something to enhance that part would really help. Perhaps open the curtain up a bit more and have more light coming in from that spot directly, lighting up that side of the face. As I'm trying to find something to explain why this shot didn't score better I'm really coming up with a loss here. I really think it's a strong photo. Perhaps the curtains are too wrinkled? Perhaps the model's hair is a tad mussy and out of place which causes a slight distraction. See...nitpicking again. Honestly, I can't explain it. I can tell the photo isn't a top 10 contender but I can't put my finger on it. Sorry about that. Take pride in the fact that you got zero 1's or 2's in voting. I.E. NO ONE thought it sucked. Converserly you got 3 9's and 10's which means some people thought it was fantastic. My biggest form of criticism would simply be that it isn't the strongest photo for a Free Study challenge. As you may well be aware, Free Study encourages the best of the best to come out. You really have to do something over the top to get noticed here. Had this photo been in a weekly challenge such as "Pensive" or something you'd probably be a top 10 contender for sure! Great job, really.

Surreal Landscape
by Shaman

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

The orange foreground against the dark or black background makes a very nice contrast. Unfortunately, the tree in the distance seems out of place. The composition of the fence and tree in the photo work for me but the actual negative effect the tree has (i.e. looks like a film in negative) bothers me. The tree line on the horizon (also appearing negative) also seems completely out of place to me and the white halo effect around the tree line is tremendously distracting. Nice use of dodge and burn on the clouds...really makes them dramatic and helps the photo compensate a little for the distracting elements mentioned above. Overall I think this is a photo with a lot of promise that just fell short of being a real contender. Keep practicing with HDR and looking for what works best. I think the photo demonstrates you have a good eye for photography and will turn out outsanding work.

Childhood Easter Surprises
by jerowe

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

First impression was "Oh no! Not children!!" After I got past the initial horror, I realized that this was actually done very well. Your arrangement of photos is nice and I particularly love the top pane of the tripytch. Nice vignetting at the edges and I love the pose and composition on this one. The child in the lower third, the ball in the upper third really makes a strong composition in my opinion. A solid stand alone by itself. The lower left photo seems a little soft to me, particularly around the eyes which is the center focus for a portrait shot. Maybe that's my imagination because after I said this and looked closer the focus looks ok. Strange. The biggest problem I have with the whole collection though is the lower left because he seems to be putting food in his mouth and I just personally detest photos of children putting things in their mouths or having food in her face. Probably just a personal issue I need to work through. Anyway, the lower right photo seems a HAIR over exposed on the cheek. I like the ball in this photo to tie in more with the ball in the top pane. Unfortunately I didn't notice the ball in the lower right at first..only saw it after examining closeley for this critique. That's probably because again my eyes are drawn to whatever it is he's putting in his mouth. Had the childs focus been on the ball and not the food it would have been perfect. The color and contrast are good in all the shots but I'm not sure I'm fond of the vibrant green. It seems out of place somehow. Overall this is a VERY solid entry that you should be proud of. I'm sure your friend is going to want a print of this for his wall. Your score is about where I'd expect it to be...right around a 6 but not more. It has a LOT of promise but a few distractions keeps it from being a top 10 contender. All in all a fantastic shot. Crongrats!

'Ode to a Runner
by harmsusmc

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

My first thoughts were "How cool would this look on someone's wall?" This fresh take on the triptych challenge is well deserving of a much higher mark in my opinion. I particularly like the arangement of photos as if the smaller photos are hovering over a much larger photo. It may not be unique but I'd never seen it done quite that way and I thought it worked excellent. I love the choice of angles you provided of the runner which definately gives the feel of a montage of the race. The only distraction I really find in the photo is the stop sign in the top right corner. By the way, having the time clock in the big shot was a fantastic choice. All of your shots are crisp clear focus with of course strong direct light. Though I'd normally say this is a distraction, I find myself so impressed with the photographers and cameras at the finish line. It really adds a great element to this. Your use of borders was excellent and the banner on the large photo almost gives the impression of being inside another border which is interesting. I'm STUNNED that this photo had no votes of 10. I really can't understand that at all. However, if it's any consolation, it's rare to find no 1's, 2's OR 3's so NO ONE thought your picture sucked. As I wrack my brain trying to figure out why you didn't score/place higher I would have to guess that perhaps the photos are just too busy for most people. There are indeed a lot of little things to draw the eye away but for me, I was still focused on the runner the instantly. Unlike many entries, yours truly tells a story, expresses a sense of emotion and should make you very proud! Honestly should have placed much higher in my opinion. Outstanding!

Florescence
by Tlemetry

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

First impressions were "wow, look at the color!" The wow factor really helps this shot score well. The images work well together even though the items in each picture only marginally relate. Obviously the tie in is the array of colors. The markers/highlighters and the sissors go together but on further reflection, the slinky is slightly out of place. Unfortunately, the slinky really is the focal point of your piece and you probably got your inspiration from that and worked in the other items for the color. Don't know how much better this might of scored if all the items more clearly related. I'm slightly distracted by the lighting only in that the outside photos were shot at a different angle and therefore reflected light differently than the center shot. This subtle change of lighting would have been less noticable or distracting had the frames been seperated from each other a bit by a black border perhaps. Obviously all three shots can be very different lighting but in this shot the effect appears that you wanted the same lighting but didn't get it right in all three shots. Overall, your lighting is really good. I particularly like the highlights on the middle shot. I notice from your voting that you got a good number of 9's and 10's but NO 1's or 2's. In other words NO ONE thought the shot sucked. That's remarkable because there are always trolls out there! I pretty much only have good things to say about your photo...it's a shame it didn't place higher. I imagine if you look at the competition there isn't much that seperates you from many positions higher. Great concept and excellent execution!