Remembering Hero's
by daveit

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club:

I like this photo a lot. It really brings to life the sadness that can be felt by individuals who have to endure such hardship. You can really feel this man’s pain, and you get the sense that he has really been through a lot.

Lighting:
The lighting looks just a little flat, but that could actually help here. This flatness of light give me the feeling that it was an overcast day, so even though you can’t see the sky you get the feeling that there is a dreariness there. Also, I don’t know what is going on in the lower right hand corner of the picture, it looks a little washed out.

Composition:
Nice work. You were able to get not just the main subject in there, but a couple of other glum looking guys as well just to add to the flavor. I don’t mind that the heads are cut off of the guys to the left of the main subject. What does bother me is the half-person on the far left of the pic. It really leads my eye off to the left, and I get no where to go. Otherwise, your leading lines are solid, pulling the viewer to the main points of interest.

Post Processing:
Well, everything is very smooth and clean. I like the b&w, but I really think you would have done better without the selective desat. I think that effect can be used to create a nice feel, but you just have to ask yourself, what is important about this shot? What do I want the viewer to notice first? Is it really that pin? I may be ignorant, but I don’t know the significance of that pin. It adds nothing to the emotion of the scene. I would have just left it black and white.

All that being said, this is a very nice capture, and I would hang it on my wall if I were you.

drake

Samurai
by Imagineer

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club.

I feel like I am at the fair. This picture does a good job of giving one a sense of placement. You have captured a piece of something we have all built up memories of. Looking at the light trails there, I can only imagine how scary this ride is.

Composition:
The shape of your light trails does a good job of leading the eye across the frame. The sheer texture of these trails along with the multiple directions they lead you is amazing. I think that the bridge on the bottom of the frame then pulls your eyes completely out of the pic, into some kind of tunnel. The people in the frame just help pull your eye to that bridge, and out of what is really interesting about this picture. Why not a tighter crop to cut out those elements on the bottom and make it a little more abstract?

Lighting:
Great lighting. I wonder if there was a very bright light just to the left of frame. The whole pic looks a little washed out with a lens flare, especially across the middle of the frame. A lens hood could have helped with that.

Post-processing:
This shot looks just a little dirty to me. You might want to run something like neat image on this one. I’m not usually a fan, but it could help clean it up.

The streaks here are amazing, and almost enough to overcome the stuff on the bottom.

Isolation
by ClubJuggle

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club.

When I opened this image, I instantly got a nostalgia for going to the pumpkin patch when I was a child. The pumpkin is a symbol of the harvest, and the isolation makes me think of the way one feels after thanksgiving. The holiday season can be lonely, and it usually begins when you start to see pumpkins around. I love the symbology, and the emotions it invokes.

Composition:
This is a good picture with a strong sense of placement. The eye is drawn directly to the place that you intended it, the pumpkin. There is really nowhere for it to go after that, and that can be okay, but I feel like another element would have helped. Perhaps something in the upper right of the photo to give a sense of balance would have helped. Given the fact that an element like that probably did not exist, I think that the photo would have been helped a little getting in closer to your subject. Think of the rule of thirds. This pumpkin is way on the bottom of the frame. If you would have gotten closer, and perhaps lower on it, you would have gotten the gord to take up almost a third of the frame. This also would have decreased your DOP, helping to accentuate that beautiful fog.

Lighting:
Good. I like the muted colors of the field. It really gives you that feeling of the loneliness of the season. It is hard to wrong with the evenly dispersed lighting that a cloudy day gives you in a situation like this.

Post processing:
I like what you have done mostly. I wish you would have given the pumpkin just a little more punch. If I were you, I would probably create a duplicate layer and make the mode linear burn. Then I would cut the pumpkin out of this layer. You can then tweak the opacity of the burn layer so that the surroundings of the pumpkin won’t fight for spectrum space as much as it does now. You could even make an additional layer and make it a gradient going from top to bottom so that that burn layer is bright on top, but graduates down to a darker value. This way your pumpkin pops out without having to over-saturate it, or make it too bright. Just some ideas.

Good picture. I like it a lot.

Faces #4
by geminiwb

Comment:
Greetings from the critique club.

This is a good Low-key shot. I definitely think that the black and white was the way to go on this one. I am able to get a sense of who the man is through this picture which makes it a successful portraiture.

Composition:
The choice of this super tight composition is a bold one. It is certainly thinking outside the box a little and that is good. My eye is drawn, however to the lower right corner where there is something white, I presume a wall. This is the brightest portion of the image and it is very distracting to me. I like that his face is at a slight tilt, making a straight-on head shot into something a little more interesting.

Lighting:
This technique is a wonderful way to derive passion from your subject, and this photo demonstrates the technique fairly well. I would suggest two things. The first is that the light could be a little softer. The subject’s cheek has someâ€Â¦ “texture” that perhaps could have been dampened by a slightly softer light source. You could use a soft box, or if you aren’t using professional lights, you can just go to your local photo store and get a diffuser gel to affix in front of your light source. This will also make the light spill over onto the face in a more dramatic way. The second suggestion is to work just a little more on the placing of the light. Your effect is good, but I am a little distracted by the reflection of the light in the subject’s left eye. The eye itself is a little too dark for my taste, and that reflection just accentuates that. I usually end up raising my light source higher to eliminate those things, but you can move it any direction you want to remove the reflection. More than anything, just be aware of the reflections in your photo, especially in the eyes.

Post Processing:
Nicely done. The post processing in this photo (other than the desat) is not obvious, and that is what I try for in most pictures. You have done a tasteful job of enhancing your image, but not drawing attention to the enhancements. Short of using a diffused light source, you might have done a slight blur on the face itself as outlined in this tutorial.

Nice picture. Good emotion. And that is what counts.

Student´s glasses
by Luxvich

Comment:
I like this effect, and it is used in context on this pic. good luck. 9

Santa has just graduated in aquariums
by greslizzz

Comment:
silly, but flat. better lighting would have helped you out.

The walk to class
by Cam

Comment:
This image would have been helped by aligning your horizon.

Sun Break
by Zoomdak

Comment:
glad to see the old 717 going to good use! congrats on the ribbon.

drake

Relax
by Stagolee

Comment:
looks a little over sharpened, but otherwise an excellent photo.

Thin Blue Line
by 77DX

Comment:
that is a wonderful title. I always have trouble with my titles. I can't wait to see more entries.

drake