Yellow Cupby
chuckwComment by ericwoo: Hey there from the Critique Club
First of all, welcome to DPChallenge. Congrats on tossing in that first entry. Now, we look forward to many, many more.
Camera Work/Technical: I think that choosing f/11 for this shot was a pretty good idea, thus trying to keep all aspects of the image nicely focused. Even still, it looks like you were a bit too close to the flower by the fact that you lost focus on the petal in the front.
Lighting: Your lighting isn't bad, especially for the harsh, natural lighting that you chose to shoot in. Still though, the lighting is a touch on the hard side, with bright highlights and hard shadows. This really takes away from the silky-smooth feel that you were going for.
Composition/Content: While I'm no stickler for the 'rules' of photography, I do feel that this is far too centered for such a common-place image. You'll find that pictures of flowers and other common subjects will suffer in their score around here unless the image and the composition are both very spectacular. I do agree with dtremain that this would have been stronger with a square crop.
My Opinion: 5.15 is a pretty strong place to start with a first entry. That leaves much room for improvement, but it also shows that the voters didn't absolutely hate what you offered.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric
Photographer found comment helpful.