Eminence
by RebelBlue

Comment by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I like the impressionistic feel of this shot, falling snow, dirty window and all. And yes, wildlife don't take direction well! Looks like you shot on a very murky winter day, when the sky is a flat monochramatic grey, and a flash would frighten off the bird.

Like the way the branches help frame the cardinal. Your settings and composition and fine for such a tricky shot, you scored poorly mostly due to ambient lighting than anything else.

FWIW...I live in an old schoolhouse, the kind that has three gigantic windows down each long side. I scrubbed out the window that would give me the best shot of birds with vinegar and water, and removed the window screen. This gave me the chance to get shots of the birds through almost-perfectly clean glass. May want to give it a try.

Overall, a great attempt in terms of concept, execution needs a little more work. Keep shooting!

Feel free to PM me with any questions,

Susan

Eminence
by RebelBlue

Comment by james_so:
Nice idea but you didn't really get the shot.

Eminence
by RebelBlue

Comment by MaryO:
Cardinals in the snow are really pretty. While the falling snow is great for this challenge, I really want to see the cardinal better. I suspect he stayed uncooperatively behind that mass of branches, though.

Junked
by RebelBlue

Comment by Ja-9:
such a cool car...don't know why but I really like the old rusty ones the best

Lost River 1
by RebelBlue

Comment by Mark-A:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

Composition:

I think the composition is slightly awkward here, the rock is a little too high in my opinion and would make for a stronger image if it was located on the lower right side in the rule of thirds line, this would have resulted in a leading line away from the rock making the picture a little more complete (even though the challenge was rocks I think you would still have been meeting the challenge this way but you would also have had a more interesting composition).

I guess there's a case for suggesting this is also on the fussy side, with the plants / grasses not really bringing anything to the shot, but infact they detract a fair bit and demand quite a bit too much of the viewers attention.

I see this is your first entry so don't worry it will soon become apparent that clean, crisp, well composed and sharp entries are what is generally required to score well here. It can be quite frustrating but at the sametime it's 1 of the best learning curves I have ever experienced.

Camera Work:

The shot looks a little underexposed although that could be due to the processing creating an almost flat look to the image. The rock also looks a little soft on the closest end which appears to be the main focus point of the image.

Post-Processing:

I think a curves adjustment at the highlight end would make a world of different in the histogram, I also think a better way to get a sepia look (if that's what you were going for) is to use DuoTone mode but maybe that's just personal preference. Whilst basic editing is quite limiting there is still a whole load of things you can do to improve an image generally.

My Opinion:

Your score was always going to be pretty low with this image on this site, for the reasons mentioned above regarding DPC voters requirements or expectations. I think there's plenty of scope to move forward and I would recommend commenting on the challenges try and comment on 100% of the images within any given challenge if you can, then when voting is over it's most useful to go back and see how the voters found the images in relation to your take on each one, this gives you some idea of what to submit if scores are your main concern.

Good luck in future challenges!

Mark

Lost River 1
by RebelBlue

Comment by IWhispered:
The rock is out of focus and the grass is very distracting and noisy, maybe because it is difficult to distinguish in the photo due to the duotone. I would have also not made the rock the center of the image.

Lost River 1
by RebelBlue

Comment by colorcarnival:
Per my personal tastes, I don't feel the colortone is adding anything to the mood of the shot. It's too bad the leaves are in the foreground because it looks like you have a beautiful capture of the water.

Lost River 1
by RebelBlue

Comment by cutout:
food for thought here 10

Lost River 1
by RebelBlue

Comment by lobomom:
not enough contrast to really make this one pop