Black Eyed Abstract
by rwouthuis

Comment:
I'm guessing this was achieved by using a hollow tube with reflective inside and then rotating the tube?

Anyway, it's fun to see a creative shot in this challenge and even better that you manage to do this with such a cliche subject as a flower. :)

I hope you do well is this challenge!

crapper
by whiteroom

Comment:
Oh well, yet another toilet picture!
However, while I can't say I'm fond of all those lavatories I've been forced to see in this competition I still kinda like your picture.
First of all, I find the composition to be 'pleasing' with the sink being placed slightly higher than the toilet.
The lightning is also quite neat and the red tone gives it a strange look. I also especially like the tiles on the floor and the wall. I also think you made the right choice by not having the picture level.

Perhaps it would have been great to see a roll of toilet paper or a towel on the wall in the center. I'm also curious whether it might have been better to frame this shot slightly wider.

Tetons Storm Break
by kearock

Comment:
I have a feeling that it would have looked nicer to skip those trees to the left and right in the foreground and instead focuson the small group of trees in the back. What I would have done would have to be a bit closer to those trees and shoot at bit wider angle (stitching would be an option if this was you widest setting - check out autostitch). If possibly it would have been nice to make the rightmost tree in the background more prominent than the others (as it stand apart and has a slightly different color).
I would have placed those trees to the left in the frame and the mountaintop slightly to the right of the trees.
Now, my view of the scene is most certainly not more 'coorect' than yours, however I find that it always fun to see others interpretion of the scene.

However, if we only look at the image you captured instead, the blown out sky is quite distracting here and in my opinion the shadow in the foreground is also a distraction - either it should not be there at all or at least to be a bit darker.
As for nitpicking, I would like the snow on the mountaintop to be slightly brighter and the 'blue' and grey mountains a bit darker to increase contrast. This can be achieved by using dodge and burn (dodge the highlights [snow} and burn the shadows and perhaps the midrange (the mountains).
I think a slightly more sharpening would be in order here, I tried to use 0.2 in radius and 90% using smart sharpening in Photoshop CS2 and felt that was a slight improvement.
A slight S-curve would also be nice to increase the contrast in the image.
I also feel that you should use the sponge tool to increase the saturation in selective arease. In particular the bush under the tree to the right is a bit too desaturated for my taste. Perhaps also the lower dark portion of the rightmost tree?
I think you should have moved one step to the right when taking this photo so the tree to the left in the foreground wouldn't 'blend' with the leftmost tree in the background. A distraction as it is, in my opinion.

I find the signature in the bottom right corner to be quite irritating. At first I thought this white small pattern was a pattern of the picture so I think you either need to make the signature more prominent (and so one can read your name) or forego it.

EDIT: Perhaps being closer to the ground would have been nice?
Here's a quick editing job in Photoshop. (I know the tree to the left is too sharpened in this version.)

Message edited by author 2005-07-31 12:10:51.

Grass explosion!
by LalliSig

Comment:
To answer Andy, Larus and I did indeed go to the same soccer match and we stood right by each other when we took those two, admittedly, similar shots.
It might seem strange that we submit such similar shots even though we went to the same game but I can assure you that this was not planned on our behalf as Larus and I did not know of each other submissions until after the voting had started. Quite a coincidence, eh?
In addition, I might mention that it should be obvious to most people that my picture and Larus's have a quite different look to them (colour etc.) and the background is very different which, to me at least, shows that they were taken from different vantage points and were processed with different methods. Perhaps it's moot to explain this as the site council will undoubtedly see when they receive the original files that these two shots were taken on two different cameras.

(As an aside a similar thing happened to me and another photographer in the 'Abandoned' challenge where the entries in the 3rd and 4th place were of the same house.)

I could also mention that Larus and I were not the only ones to submit photographs from this game as Sjonni and hrutsen also submitted a picture from this exact match.
And to boot Arnit, Siggi and skarason also all submitted photographs from the same game.

Anyway, congratulations for your red ribbon, Larus!!

Message edited by author 2005-07-20 09:54:11.

Tropical Kickboarding
by cloudsme

Comment:
Quite a fun shot. It looks like the woman is swimming towards a gigantic squid just ready to eat her. ;)

Swimming
by bucket

Comment:
Fun concept and water certainly looks nice and strange but what is lacking here is that we really need to see the boy's face and it would also have been nice had you shown more to the left.

Morning Surf
by idnic

Comment:
Now, applying a slight blue tone to B&W photographs can be pretty neat sometimes but you most definitely did overdo it here. The tone needs to be much more subtle! It's also a bit too purple for my taste.

As for the picture itself I think you should have cropped somehwat closer to the action. 30%-50% of the sky should be cut out and and I think it would have been nicer had you croped a tiny bit more from the right and maybe also from left.

The picture is also a bit too dark for my taste. Perhaps you are working with a too bright LCD-monitor?

Ballet and football
by sjonni

Comment:
Hæ Sjonni. :)

Well, what to say. First of all, it's a somewhat nice moment though, and you do know this already, I think you could easily have done better than this 'on a better day'. ;)

However, what I find to more disappointing is how lacking the picture is in the technical aspect.
The focus is of course slightly incorrect but I somehow feel you (and I might be wrong here) could have compensated for it slightly more by applying USM before resize. Anyway, that's what has worked for me with slightly blurred shots - I'm sorry if I'm stating the obvious. :S
More disappointing though is the post-production. The colors are somewhat incorrect here (e.g. the the much too red and saturated color of Fylkir outfit) and the picture has a slight blue/cyan color-cast.
In addition, there are some large areas in the picture that are fully saturated in one or more colour-channels. This is especially noticeable with the guy in the front where a large swath of his outfit above the 'Bónus' logo is fully saturated in the red channel. The fully blown white hightlights (as in the white sock) are also distracting but not nearly as much as the over-saturated red in the Fylkir-outfit.

Power & Patience
by ph223048

Comment:
I like this one. If one would want to nitpick it doesn't really show the 'action' of basketball but I'm certainly not going to give you a lower vote because of that.
Anyway, the main fault with this picture is that the hand isn't completely in the frame. I wouldn't go as to say that this ruins the picture but it most certainly loses some impact because of it.
Other than that I like the framing, the background is nice and bright and out of focus and gives a nice contrast to the darker elements; the ball, the hand and the clothes.
I would probably try to bring out a little shadow detail in the pants, most likely by using shadow/highlight in Photoshop.

big air
by Tom_Robbrecht

Comment:
Very nice! Most certainly one of the better picture in this challenge!
While one could argue that silhouettes have been done to death here on dpc and in photography I still think it is quite tastefully done here and it doesn't detract from the action in the picture.

The composition is quite nice though I wonder if it would have looked better in a square framing where one could see more of the bottom and the top.

However, the main fault I see with picture is that it is somewhat difficult to understand the action in this shot. I noticed earlier this year when photographing snowboarders that they find it essential in snowboarding-photographs to see the ground as to be able to determine how high the snowboarder is jumping and what trick he is doing. Naturally, being someone who doesn't know much about snowboarding I very often failed to do so, much to their dismay.
Anyway, I wouldn't exactly call it a fault with this picture that you don't see the water and therefore it's difficult to determine how high the guy is jumping but it would probably have depicted the action slightly better that way.

One could also argue that the apparant 'grainyness' in the lower half of the picture is quite distracting. At least I most certainly think that many people will give you a lower score than otherwise. However, believe this isn't exactly grain but instead it is the water droplets flying upwards. Am I right here?

Well, enough of this. Job well done!