Zoom, Peas!by
llermaComment by atupdate: Hello from the Critique Club.
I thought the zoom effect was a very creative idea for this challenge and I love the spoke like pattern from the peas. However, the chopsticks and the table runner produced a competing pattern for the voter's attention. The chopsticks would have been more effective as a prop if they had disappeared when you zoomed in on the peas or placed in a manner where the zoomed sticks could have been cropped out without removing the original set. This could be worth the time and effort to go back and see if it can be done.
There are a couple of other minor compositional issues you may want to watch for in the future. First is the cropping of the bottom of the plate. With so little of the plate missing, it looks like a mistake instead of something you intentionally planned. The other is the object in the top left corner. I'm not sure what it is but it is somewhat distracting. Since this was an advanced editing challenge, this could have been cloned out.
With regard to the lighting, I see from your notes that you made your image darker during post processing. This may have worked against you, as the peas in the center of the image are not as vibrant in color as the DPC voter tends to like.
For your first challenge you showed a lot of creativity. You will find that when done well, creativity is rewarded. I predict your score will improve as you enter more challenges and gain experience. Good luck.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.
Tim
