Puttin' on the Ritz
by cheegirl

Comment:
10, no question, just for the poor froggie, LOL! I love this!!!!

Could You Spare 10 Cents?
by Blue Moon

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

How adorable! Lucky you! I love the little lizards! And to have one sitting and sunning on your finger, WOW!

I love the overall feel of the shot, fits the title, title fits the shot very well, almost feels like he is asking for some change, LOL! :)

But something else I noticed almost right off was the light, the back light to be specific. Between your finger and the lizard is very bright, not blown out but distracting all the same. And the front of the dime is very dull and not really dark but not really light enough either compared to the rest of the lighting. Some dodging and burning, since this was an advanced challenge could have really balanced this shot out.

Your colors are very nice and bright in this shot. The only other thing I noticed was the overall clarity of the shot, it could be a touch sharper, really bring out the lizard and the dime, I like the DOF used but the main focus could be just a touch sharper.

I hope my comments help and Good Luck in future Challenges!

Deannda

Washboard Road
by patio127

Comment:
Hi! This has the potential to be a really interesting shot with the right pp in it. You have a good start, basic composition with your road leading you in and around the shot but then it ends. It doesn't take me the rest of way through and that's not always a bad thing if you have something for me to look at when I get to that point. But in this shot there is not much there for me to see.

A couple of ways you could have made it this more interesting was to adjust you different colors in Hue/Saturation with Layers. Adding a layer to adjust the blues, one for the greens, etc. Do this and you can see the picture really start to come to life with color alone. Right now it's just there, nothing to really grab my attention and make me want to stay around.

Another is cropping, I would bring it in just a bit more on the left so the side of the road is on the left boarder so the whole road is what is bringing me in. Then taking me through the picture.

Now you called this washboard road, and having grown up in Montana I know washboard roads and this could be one but not a very defined one. I can see a few bumps but not very many. Maybe if you tried a different angle to really bring out the bumps in the road, giving them more detail, which can also be accomplished with level and curve adjustments. Either that or just change the title so I'm not looking for the bumps.

It's not a bad shot overall and has the potential to be a much better shot with some work. Don't give up, looking at your portfolio you have an eye for this. :)

Hope my comments help.

Deannda

Carnival!
by electina

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Wow! You sure this is your first time? Not bad, not bad at all, well done!

I like the colors, very nice, a touch, just a teeeny, tiny touch of contrast might bring them out just a bit more. The composition and crop leave me wanting though. There is a large amount of negative space that doesn't compliment the fireworks. Negative space can be your friend but in this instance, to me personally, the space left of the right side of the fireworks is too much. If you were to crop that out, using the rule of thirds, placing the firworks on the right third or even cropping off on the left, centering the firworks more, this would, to me, compliment the shot much better. The lights on the bottom are also a bit distracting, they are there, fuzzy but don't add anything to the shot for me. I would have cropped them out completely.

If you play with this some on the cropping, I would love to see the results. Also, I would sharpen it just a bit, to really bring out the edges on the fireworks, not a lot, just a tiny touch.

But again, for a first time effort, this is a wonderful shot. I wish I could shoot fireworks this well, LOL :)

Looking at your other work, you are going to be a force to reckon with here on DPC! Well done!

Hope my comments help and Good Luck in Future Challenges.

Deannda

*<!>*<!>*
by rossbilly

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

WOW! You did better than I did with my fireworks attempts. I didn't enter because mine all sucked, but this is nice!

The clarity and sharpness of the shot is very well done and I like the colors very much.

Reading the comments I would have to agree that the negative space in this shot doesn't work that well for the shot. You aren't using the rule of thirds to draw my eye into a certain area, there are no real leading lines in or out of the shot and the overall composition due to either the crop or lack of crop leaves me wondering what to do with all that extra space. A tighter crop to possibly bring the fireworks more to the center might really help this shot. Also just a bump n the contrast or curves or levels to really make the colors pop might make more people stand up and say, "WOW!" insteadk, "Yeah, that's nice."

Hope my comments help, looking through your portfolio you have some wonderful shots, a real eye for some of this. Welcome to DPC and Good Luck In Future Challenges.

Deannda

A surrealistic tribute to Stan Laurel
by Rino63

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Now that would be progess to a point, that is for sure, LOL! Great idea and not a bad overall execution of the idea. Some notes were already given in the comments, let me see what I can add here.

Okay, first, the border does work well with this shot, sometimes these borders can be tricky but for this one I like it, adds to the shot, doesn't take away.

Next, the flame, again, great timing but two little things bother me. First that the flame is out of focus when the thumb is sho clear and second the flame on the left side of the thumb, I would expect it to come more over the top and possibly to one side if the wind is blowing, but it's leaning to the right and still showing some on the left of the thumb. From this angle it seems off for some reason.

Another thing that stands out for me is the thumb itself. It is the main focus of your shot here and while not a bad looking thumb, a little bit of filing and a coat of polish, color or clear would really make this thumb much nicer to look at. It's all in the little details sometimes, irritating, yes, worth it, OH YES! :)

Other that those things, this is a very interesting shot and looking at your profile, you have some wonderful ideas, a great eye and lots of potential. I look forward to seeing more of your work!

Hope my comments help and Good Luck in Future Challenges!

Deannda

July 4, 2006
by DigiFotoBuddy

Comment:
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WTG SHAIL!!! I have watched you just get better and better and better! YOu will have that ribbon before you know it!

Deannda
Proud Team Captain to Shail!!!

Through a Glass Darkly
by raish

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

An interesting shot, it really is and I can see the potential here. I like the composition of the shot, though I'm for some reason thinking the ball should be on the other side of the shot, used to things running left to right but this works well.

Don't really understand the title, get the Through the Glass part and the Darkly I'm guessing is the feel of the shot or through a dark glass to a darker world? Not really sure about that but Title is only a small part but it can play in your score in the end.

I'm going to bet, without even looking at the other comments you got hit with comments about the noise in the picture. Hang on, let me check.......yep I was right. And I found out about the title. I can't add much to what wavelength said about the settings on your camera. But if you were going for noise on purpose he is correct in that it works much better in black and white than in color. I also agree with the comment about the reflection in the ball, better focus on that would really make this shot stand out a bit more.

I hope my comments help and Good Luck In Future Challenges!

Deannda

And you thought that was just a story...
by PeterPic

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Okay, first I had to say I had NO IDEA what you were talking about. The first thing that came to mind was hair loss because of the type of hair in the hand and the way it's arranged.

Then I read some of the comments and thought, "I never heard it that way!" :)

So, now that I know what you are going for...........

The lighting and tone set in this shot is very well done and expresses the setting that you were going for very nicely. But honestly the shoulder in the lower left corner? Very distracting and at first glance I couldn't tell what it was, shoulder, breast......? But bringing the shoulder back so it's not taking up so much of the shot might help quite a bit. I realize we risk showing something else when we do that but if you change the angle of the shot just a touch you could still get the message across while improving the overall composition of the shot. I tried just cropping it out but that leaves the shot very unbalanced.

Also the direction of the hand, it the fingers were pointing more towards the corner, offering a line through the shot it, again might help with the overall feel of the shot.

Now, the "hair". As mentioned previously, it just doesn't look realistic. You could have gone with some glue and some short hair or even string set up to make it look more like your leg or arm hair and this would have really sent the message across without any question.

Again, very nice tones and the setting is clear as a bell. I hope my comments help and Good Luck in Future Challenges.

Deannda

Abandoned
by liltritter

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

What a wonderful shot. Such emotion and such wonderful composition. I love the B&W treatment as well.

The first thing I did think when I saw it was someone's little girl after she was done playing and they caught her rubbing her eyes, perfect! Then I read your comments and I was close! ;) I use my children a lot as well.

I love the feel of this shot, the dirty little girl, the feeling of being alone and lost, the dirty dress everything. The only things that give me just a touch of concern are one, the focus. Could be just a touch, a tiny smidge sharper to really bring out the edges of the shot and two the lack of definate black/white spots, it seems to be a lot of gray, and some of them are really blending. Either adjusting the levels just a touch or adding a bit of brightness/contrast to make it pop just a touch more would really put this one over the top for me. I didn't get a chance to vote in this challenge, but if I had this would have gotten a 7 or 8 from me, with the adjustments a 9 or 10.

If you take my suggestions and rework this shot I would love to see the results.

Good luck in future challenges and I hope my comments help.

Deannda