Odd One Out
by cfischl

Comment:
Although this image is rather static, the color certainly does make it's presence known. Excellent use of DoF, color and lighting. There appear to be compression / sharpening artifacts on the nearer pins that I find a little distracting. Because the composition is so minimal it is apparent that the pins are not exactly aligned (the 7th pin from the back is particularly distracting).

A festive welcome
by p2jvr

Comment:
This image appears to have been oversharpened. The way that the image is framed implies that the door is the intended subject, while the high saturation of the hats draws my attention over to the other side of the image. Placing the bird statues are so close to the edge of the frame with their gaze directed past the edge of the image creates visual tension which doesn't seem to benefit the photo overall.

If the door and wall are the intended subject, then cropping out the birds would make this a pleasing image which doesn't meet the challenge. If the birds' hats are the intended focal point then recomposing the image to make them more prominent (e.g. shooting from near the ground upward with the door in the background) would dramatically improve the image.

Charmed
by Tammer

Comment:
I think that this concept is good, but the production quality feels way too cheap to earn a high vote from me. Harsher, more directional lighting might have helped to leave more of the details to the imagination, which would probably be an improvement. If you shot this against a black background and lit the scene through a hole under the glass dot, then added another light source almost parallel with the surface of the backdrop I think that this would have looked a lot better, even with the current props.

A Rainbow and Mistletoe
by Faye Pekas

Comment:
I think that the color here is a little too understated for the current challenge. Boosting the saturation on the rainbow would make this a much better "Burst of Color".

Please Don't Pee On Me!
by amster

Comment:
This seems to be tilted clockwise slightly. A shallower DoF would have reduced some of the background clutter.

Burst
by Angelis

Comment:
The woman's hand is almost more vibrantly colored than the balloon, and none of the colors are particularly saturated. The position of the woman's fingers seems a little odd; making her pose look a little more intentional would improve the image, as would catching the balloon mid-pop.

Red Rock Jeep Adventures
by JPR

Comment:
I like the sky, but the rocks feel overdone. Part of what makes the work of Joey, heida and the other Photoshop masters around here so impressive is that they know when to stop. The tree that snuck into the right side of the image is a bit distracting. Cloning or cropping it out would have improved the composition.

An Artist at Work
by liebe

Comment:
I don't care for the harsh lighting. The sharp shadows only seem to distract from the rest of the composition. I like the fact that the painter is included in the picture (it makes it feel like something other than a photograph of a picture), but I think that including _all_ of her is overkill. The muted colors of the model's clothing work well, but I'd be interested in seeing how altering her saturation in either direction would have changed the mood of the image.

Legendary Rock Colors
by Pascal

Comment:
The color on the lettering seems a little washed out. Since that seems to be the intended subject I think that the composition is weakened by this fact. I think that a more minimalistic setting might have served you better here. The light source and whatever the perforated plastic thing is don't seem to add anything to the composition. Illuminating the disk's label against a black background with the light reflected off of the back of another CD would have had a much stronger impact.

Ornithophobia - Fear of Birds
by Baron152

Comment:
This image feels like a literal representation of the feared object and doesn't really convey a sense of fear. The thing sticking up from the water and the bird in the foreground are distracting.