Little Nat
by Shelley

Comment:
I like the contrast in the B&W portion of the image, but the selective desaturation seems to have been done because it was possible rather than because it improved the image.

Make your own
by Pug-H

Comment:
The lighting here is rather flat; more directional lighting from the side would have helped to add a lot of depth.

pizzazz
by ursula

Comment:
I think that we have a winner. I really like the DoF, and the vibrant colors are very well done. The only things that might improve the image would be to change the light green blur in the lower right quadrant (by shifting the hue or desaturating it) and possibly adding a stronger reflection on the glass to add to the depth. This image is clearly worthy of being sold as stock at one of the higher-end agencies like Alamy.

layers of blue
by hopper

Comment:
This looks oversharpened. A hair light placed directly behind the flower would give it a nice glow around the edges. The wilted-looking (desaturated?) leaves on the flower contrast with the petals in a way that feels imbalanced rather than complementary. The stem appears to be framed slightly off-center; I would like it better if the flower were angled to place the stem 1/3rd of the way toward either edge or moving it to the exact center.

Vinegar Mosaic
by jrjr

Comment:
The highlights on the backdrop stand out a little more than they should, and the bottle isn't in very sharp focus. If the contrast in the background were lower or the focus on the bottle were sharper this would be a better image.

Holiday Fun
by kari1

Comment:
This feels like a snapshot - too staged to be candid, but too quickly composed to look like a portrait. If both of the kids were either looking at the camera or engrossed with something offscreen then the presentation would seem more relaxed. Cropping off half of the girl's shoulder makes the image feel a little cramped. A catchlight in the subject's eyes would have been a nice touch.

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".