Yawn... My favourite time of the year!
by ofjord

Comment:
Study session! The composition and mood of this photo are great. That said, I think your lighting has done you a huge disservice. The light behind the girl's head has dimmed her face and the whole scene somewhat, and brings out a piece of the background to leave us wondering, when I think it might have been better left dark, and nothing to distract us from the studying. At the same time, the foreground light, while it brings out the faces of the subjects well enough, is blindingly bright itself and has glared out all or most details of the book or notebook in front of the boy, and also of his nearer sleeve - you can even only barely see the crease at the elbow.

I think I'd have tried turning off the background light, and moving the foreground light out of the shot and/or finding a softer foreground light.

Homework Blues
by lisaseiwert

Comment:
Hee. A classic mood for this one. Nice crisp focus. I think I would have either lit the background or cropped the image closer, though. It's hard to tell where the child's head leaves off and the background begins, because it's so dark, and the slightly-lighter impressions of curtain and wall in the upper right are distracting.

The ride
by Nukkta

Comment:
This is a great angle on a bus. I'm not so sure it's a great angle for the camera, though - notice the odd patterns on the stop sign especially, and to a lesser degree the artifacts on the silver window-pieces. That may be because the image quality is lower than it has to be (under 100 k, when it could go to 150) or may be a limitation of the camera; I don't know. The sky against the bus is a nice effect, though, the moreso because it isn't blindingly washed out and yet the bus is not too dark against it.

The last plunge this summer
by chalcone

Comment:
This is a lovely scene, and the picture's quite nice, though the low light definitely shows in the blurring of the diver. There is a jaggy look about the hills that may be compression artifact, but the colors are gorgeous.

Student Transport Vessels
by christyrack

Comment:
Definitely a back to school sort of topic (and that looks like a fairly pretty place, as far as school bus parking lots go). The mirror I find distracting, presentting blurry busses in the foreground against crisply focussed ones in the background - I think this might have been stronger without it. The sky's awfully bright/washed out, but I don't see how that could be countered without darkening the buses too much.

Essentials
by silverleaf

Comment:
This is a neat concept, but the photo is a bit dark (even the paper shows as dim). Maybe brighten it up a little (so the whites were white and not yellow), and slide the stack slightly so the mechanical pencils package stuck out a bit more (stair-stepping), which would make it easier to view and also let it get a bit more light.

Color Erasers
by kim100878

Comment:
Those are really cool and fun erasers, and I like the idea of putting them in a circle. That said, I think you've been betrayed by your image quality (and possibly your lighting as well, if you were trying to compensate for it being dark). This file is 1/3 the size it can be, and the image quality is very poor, with the transitions between colors harsh and colors blotched together.

Back to Basics
by moodville

Comment:
I like this - especially with the double-meaning of the title. Basic math, but also basic (classic) images of school. Lovely composition, good rich colors - this is a great image to convey a sense of school and back-to-school.

The No. 2 Pencil
by EddyG

Comment:
I'm sure you already know this, but I'll say it anyway - the sharp focus on the pencil is AMAZING.

School
by train

Comment:
Very back-to-school, though not as crowded as it will likely be soon. That's an interesting sign as far as the bank sponsoring it. The sign's not as crisp as it could be, though, and the washed-out brilliance of the sky is a bit distracting.