Live! Tonight! In The Basement!
by mchalmers

Comment:
Great pic...although i think a little curves a djustement to make things a little brighter might do it some good.

Is that a violin bass in the background? And is the fender jazz american or mexico?

Westminster
by paullyjay

Comment:
greetings from the critique club :)

forst off i would like to say that although this image did not score that well... technically it is great, the focus the bokeh and the composition all contribute to make this photo technically flawless. The one thing that is missing from this photo is appeal. I can't tell youhow many times ive entered an image into a challenge thinking "this is great, one of the best shots ive ever taken" only to realize once voting has begun that although the photo is technically great, it has very little mass apeal.

One thing to consider when entering these challenges is to put yourself into the shoes of the voter. On first imapct what would your impressions be, because you have to remember that the majority of the voters are going to be speeding through the images, meaning that yours has to pop out from the rest. The one thing i think would make this photo pop out more would be a bt more processing. Add some contrast to the blurred escalators, and maybe add a bit of a green tone and some grunge effects. Check out Joey Lawrence's shot its not technically that pleasing, however he made it pop by the processing used.

if you have any comments or questions feel free to contact me via PM.

-Dan

Taken Raw...Sublime Post-Processing...Now Enjoy (talking grapes of course)
by alexjack

Comment:
greetings fromt he critique club,

not much to say about this image,its sharp and clean has good colors, the only thing that is lacking from it for me is some thing that pops out. Maybe next time have the champagne be jumping out of the glass or have the top popping out of the top of the bottle.

The only other thing to comment on is the exposure of the shot. The whole thing seems a but highkey and an image liek this to me seems like something that should be a little bit glamour shot blurry saloonish feel to it. This is anything but that, your exposure still works. But i might try and play around with it a bit in PS and give it that saloon feel.

Great entry though and i look forward to seeing some great work from you in the future

if you have any questions or comments feel free to PM me :)

-Dan

Good for the Heart
by temba

Comment:
greetings from the critique club jane,

the first thing i would like to say is that studio photography is a whole different beast then landscape photography. I've browsed through you're portfolia and seem to have stumbled upon a common theme in all of your studio like shots. All or most of them have a little bit too shallow DOF for the subject, and although barely noticeable this little fact can make all of the difference in a studio shot. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the camera settings but just a quick lesson in DOF. DOF is determined by two things, the aperture of the lens, and the focal length of the lens. If you're using a 70-200mm lens at an aperture of f/2.8 at 200mm the DOF is going to be very small (this is a setting many people use for portraits because it provides just the right amount of DOF to get the eyes in focus and give the background beautiful bokeh). However if your using a 17-40 lens at f/2.8 the DOF is going to be larger. Things get confusing because DOF is contorlled by the aperture as well not just the zoom. Say you're using that same 70-200 lens only now its on f/22 the DOF will be mush larger. Anyway, this shot could use just a little bit more DOF, i would bump the aperture up just too f/11 or so, especially because you can have a longer exposure since the subjuct is stable.

Another thing thats very important in studio like shots is lighting. The photographer in a studio is creating the lighting, making their own shadows and highlights, i would even venture to say that a studio photographer is more a light artist than anything else. Im just guessing here but it looks like you used tungsten lights for this shot. All light create a different glow, tungsten lights create a yellowish cast, while halogen bulbs create a more blueish cast. This is why white balance is very important. You're camera should have different WB settings for tungsten and flourescent, and halogen. Also one of the perks of shooting in RAW is that you can fix the WB in you're RAW conversions. You're WB in this shot seemoff by just little bit towards the yellow end of things.

Everything commented on here is meant to be constructive so if you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me via PM and ill get back to you ASAP,

-Dan

Healthy Pyramid
by DigiFotoBuddy

Comment:
greetings from the critique club,

this critique is meant to help and im sorry if i offend you in any way

the first thing i noticed was that you pulled up the exposure 2 full stops in your RAW editing. Was that really neccessary? i feel liek youo could have retained more of the details in the shadows and could have avoided the blown out spots on some of the fruits.

the next thing i noticed was the lighting, lighting in a challenge like this is key since the subject matter is not that interesting. you either need good lighting or an interesting idea or both ;) One thing to consider with lighting is the angle of the lights and how they hit the subject. It seems here that thelight was either coming from above the fruit and veggies or boncing off the cieling. The angle of the lighting is important because the angle of the lighting affects the shadows and highlights. And remember photography as an art is about capturing the light in an interesting way. What you have here is a product shot, a shot that does well on dpc is a shot where the photographer bends the light to do what he/she wants, a shot that captures a moment and the shadows and highlights fo that moment.

I also feel like you could have organized the pyramid better... as it is it seems very wishy washy and thrown together with no apparent order to the fruit and veggies.

overall i feel like this shot deserved the score it got, its not very interesting, the lighting isnt very good. Perhaps you must keep in mind that a good photograph is one that evokes emotion, be it disgust, hatred, or joy, and one that apeals to at least one of the senses.

if you have any questions or comments please PM me :)

-Dan

Full-Toned Five String Bass
by bigfella

Comment:
nice, i just got a schecter myself... a 4 string stiletto elit-4.. they are great instruments, i upgraded from a MIM fender

Sand Dunes
by mitchamus

Comment:
dude, you just missed the focus on this.. too bad, but still an awesome capture.. bump up to 7

Climb A Tree
by MeGoobie

Comment:
this is a great photo! full of color and great DOF. whats great about this image is it also follows the rule of thirds.. great stuff! keep it up :)

Pondering
by MeGoobie

Comment:
im lovin what you did to the brick wall behind him...i would try and mask him off so that you get a kind of cartoonish feel to the image. also just one thing thats bothering me is the bit of brick underneath his right led that seems like it hasnt been processed.

PB016979_edited-1.jpg
by missinseattle

Comment:
i love the simplistic nature of this photo... it seems a little OOF if i were you ide try to emphasize the softness more with a gaussian blur layer