Me and My Shadow
by pipersd

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

First impressions: The child in the photograph is too backlit so we can't see them clearly. I realize it was intentional to have the shadow of the child come out toward the camera but the shadowed front of the child gives the appearance of being poorly shot. You possibly could have compensated a bit with some bounce reflectors of some sort to direct light back onto the front of your subject. The backlight particularly hurts you here because your subject sort of blends in with and dissappears against your background. Again, coming in closer and using bounce reflectors of some sort to light up your subject could have helped tremendously. In my opinion this photo is also hurt by the child not really being at the thirds intersection. It's close, but the child is a little low and the shadow only increases the feel that the subject is not truly in the thirds perspective perfectly. Overall this really isn't a bad entry at all. It did meet the challenge (though a bit off in my opinion) and for the most part was well exposed except the bad backlighting. Typically I warn people away from photos of children. It is common for people to take random snapshots of children and think they are great because they are emotionally attached to their child. Your commentors however didn't seem to mind. Having said that, a general rule is, if you are going to shoot children in your photo make sure it is an exceptional shot. Good entry...keep submitting.

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours
by sfmorris

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

Congratulations on a very inique capture. My first impressions when seeing the picture was, "wow, that's cool." Wow factor is really important on DPC and you started out on the right foot. Unfortunately for me, the next thing I noticed was the "details" and right away I noticed that the horse nearest us is slightly out of focus (on the mouth). That's a killer of this strong entry because the mouth is of course where the eye is naturally going to go to see what the horses are doing. Drawing the eye to a slightly out of focus area could have hurt your score a little. Along that line, each horses head has a cheek roughly where the third lines would fall in my understanding of the rule of thrids. This means that the mouth really isn't where the third lines fall and again, my eye is taken immediately to the mouth and away from the "rule of thirds." Now here is a comment I'm struggling with. On the one hand I loved the unique take on the rule of thirds by having TWO items in the locations for the third lines (two horse heads). By the same token however, this composition takes away some of the impact of a rule of thirds shot by doing so. In other words, when I see a rule of thirds shot I expect to see one subject, clearly centered in a thirds grid. This shot has two so it doesn't give the isolated effect you might want out of a rule of thirds shot. For me, the background is a slight distraction as well. While natural, I would have liked to see a much shallower depth of field and have those trees be blurred and significantly muted. Again, I spend a moment or two looking at the background trying to figure out what exactly it was and that serves as a distraction. Your voting on the curve is a nice bell shape trending around 6 which is great and you had a ton more 9's and 10's than 1's and 2's so I think the votors agreed with me that the wow factor here was worth some extra points. I think you came close to perfection on this shot. Keep up the great work!

A Major Sugar Overload
by trolljenta

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

Very nice close up/macro shot here with excellent crisp focus! My first impressions on the photo unfortunately were that I didn't like the coloring for some reason. I think the bee (which is your subject) is overpowered by his surroundings and that hurts the photo a little. If the bee had been bright yellow and the flower a softer or pastel color I think this would have scored even higher. Again, as I'm looking at it longer I'm so impressed with the razor sharp focus on your subject. To me it's obvious the incect is dead and perhaps that's why he's lost some color too. With basic editing I don't know if you could have fixed the coloring by bumping up the yellow channel but I would like to see what happens when you do. As far as the rule of thirds I do think the incect is right in that zone but the eyeball REALLY draws your attention and that is well off the verticle third line. I don't know if that hurt your or not but some might have felt it wasn't exactly in the thirds location. All in all I think you have a spectacular capture here and I think it was deserving of a 6.0+ score. You got robbed a little. :)

Boy with mask.
by mariahdc

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

My first impression of the photo unfortunately was, "why the brick wall?" In my opinion the brick wall does nothing to enhance the photo, does not seem to go with the headdress piece as far as I can tell, and seems therefore out of place. Additionally, the white t-shirt also is out of place with the headdress. In other words, right off the bat I see a photo that doesn't make any sense. Now here is the really difficult part. The photo challenge is rule of thirds and I think you did manage to get the headdress centered roughly where it should be. In other words, you technically met the challenge requirements. However, here is where you realize that to score well in a challenge you must first and foremost meet the challenge (which you did) but then you ALSO have to meet the challenge in a creative or photographically pleasing way. Because the photo doesn't have a lot of creativity (i.e. you didn't take time to dress up in an outfit that matched the headdress or shoot against a backdrop like say a jungle or such) your photo loses what it had going for it. The same mask shot on a dark background of thick jungle leaves where you (or the model) is dressed darkly hiding amongst the foilage would have scored much higher in my opinion. Again, it's not the mask or the composition that's hurting you here. Another minor distraction I see is that your skin (or that of the model) has some bruises or modled appearance and shadows or something make the hands look dirty in places. All of these things just add more to distract from your photo. You want people focused on that mask, not on bruises, spots, etc. Once again, technically I think you are very close to hitting the rule of thirds here. Drop the distractions and you'd be gold. Good luck.

The chicken's POV
by purpleflutterby13

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

The idea is fairly clever and the title of this photo is what really sells it. Unfortunately, without the title the photo doesn't scream "kitchenware" as it should. In fact, the real focus of the photo is your face and your expression. As a viewer I spent too long trying to decide what your expression is conveying...joy...surprise...indifference? In any case, the longer I spend looking at your face the less time I spend seeing kitchenware. While your facial expression is intriguing, the subject of the challenge was kitchenware and a little more focus on the kitchenware would have helped. I have to agree with the comments you've already been receiving. The focus is a bit soft and the white balance is painfully shifted too yellow. While I see from your own write up that you liked the clutter and we should deal with it, I still feel compelled to comment that the best photos are kept somewhat simple. The clutter just adds more items to draw the eye away from the subject. As a critigue I'm trying to tell you ways you could increase your score (and thereby present a better picture). Less clutter would have helped your score. I think you came close here to having a much better score. A better white balance, sharper focus, and less clutter would probably translate into a score closer to 6 rather than 5. Keep looking for creative ways to shoot photos. I congratulate you on coming up with a fairly unique perspective and working at it to set it up. Good job!

Perfect
by xianart

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

This was an oustanding choice of subject matter for kitchenware! In order to set yourself apart in this challenge I felt you had to either shoot a unique piece of kitchenware that most people don't have or shoot something in a clever or unexpected way. This is obviously the unique side of the coin and an excellent choice. Unfortunately the blown out whites on the window behind the stove pipe probably held you back more than anything else. The window seems overexposed thereby making everything else seem underexposed by comparison. The lighting you captured on the dresser in the background was excellent and about the range of light I would have liked to see through the majority of the shot. All of the items in the shot seem to belong there (i.e. no distracting modern kitchenware). If you set up this prop shot you picked all the right props with the possible exception of what looks like styrofoam cups on the dresser. Not to take anything away from your photo but I was a little surprised by such a high place finish (25th). However, the 6.2 score seems pretty much where I would have scored it. As I said, I would have given you a 6 or better just for capturing something unique alone. Perhaps a suggestion to improve the lighting on the stove would be to use some very reflective white reflectors of some sort to bounce the sun back onto the object of focus. Perhaps you did this but didn't have enough reflection. It's a very worthy shot.

"Stock" photo
by Claya

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

It's obvious right away from the photo that you put some real work into setting this up. I find that DPC tends to reward those who put effort into their photos and I think that fact helped you out here. The technicals are good. Depth of field is just right, composition is good (though a little too centered for my tastes), lighting is excellent. However, the colorful hat distracts me a little. It's just too wild and pulls my attention away from the kitchenware which is the focus of the challenge. But, obviously the votors weren't bothered by the hat that much judging by your solid 6.0 score. I'm having a hard time critiquing the photo because personally it doesn't move me as being a great photo and I don't really know why. All I know is that I tend to give 5's for scores unless the picture moves me as better or worse and this one sort of leaves me in the middle. As I said, I can tell you put real effort into it but the coloring of the photograph doesn't seem pleasing to my eye. Ok, what can I say? Once again, your technicals are solid, you met the challenge dead on, and you scored well for your efforts. Sorry I couldn't be more help. Congratulations on a your high finish.

Turned On
by marvin

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

First off I'd like to say that the coloring and the composition are both very nice. You also made good use of shallow depth of field so technically I don't find anything wrong with you photograph with the possible exception of it beeing perhaps a tad too dark. Looking at your voting curve I see a boat load of the voters gave you a 5...right dead down the middle. In fact the entire curve is evenly dispersed around 5. My guess is that voters didn't see anything in the photo that really moved them too much either way. The photo fails to say anything or evoke an emotion. It is simply a photograph of something in a kitchen and while technically that's what the challenge was, voters might have been expecting something more creative. To get a few more points out of the score you might want to look for something that makes the photo truly unique. Either a piece of kitchenware that most people don't have anything like it or do something creative with an everyday object. Again, you have a solid photograph in the technicals department though. Might be a good shot for a micro stock agency. Keep up the good work.

The Window
by Zoomdak

Comment:
Greetings from Eastern Washington! Like you, I find this area so uninspiring photographically. My father says to take good pictures we will have to travel someplace pretty. It seems you somewhat agree with your ribbons being at Canon Beach, etc and this being your first from Spokane. Your photo is great because it could have been taken just about anywhere in the world and proves you don't have to be some place stunning to have a shot. :)

cK
by haakky

Comment:
CRITIQUE CLUB COMMENT

I like the lighting on this shot and I think you came close to acheiving what you wanted to acheive. The model is well toned and you hit the shadows nearly perfectly to enhance definition. Unfortunately the crop bothers me. Having half the face in the photo seems ackward in my opinion. I would have rather had from the neck down or all of the face - either or. Having the lower part of the face in the shot also makes the model feel like he's leaning, almost hunching forward. The models pose seems a little uncomfortable to me, as if he isn't real relaxed. Maybe resting a hand on the hip and shifting his weight to one leg or another would have helped. It seems the model is standing flat footed and it leads to a stiff looking pose. The hairy legs are distracting for me because hsi chest is clean shaven and the hair on the legs draws me downward. Being a male commenter the last thing I want on this photo is my attention to be drawn downward! LOL. Anyway, I think you were trying to duplicate a style of Calvin Klein ads here and for that you did a good job. Keep up the good work!