Hanging Out
by Rando D300

Comment:
Wowee. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I bet you waited quite a while to get this shot.

Lake and Sky
by lagavulin

Comment:
Nicely understated picture. I think it would benefit from somewhat higher contrast between the rock and that water.

Portrait
by LanSnake

Comment:
Background's blown out, composition is very static. Cropping more tightly would have helped a lot.

Water's Edge
by L1

Comment:
Nice shot, but the postprocessing looks a bit heavy. There's a strange dark halo around the posts that I find distracting.

Dreamscape
by keone

Comment:
Killer chunk of rock. Nice plane shot. Too bad it's not bigger.

Lost in love
by p_johns

Comment:
Great candid.

...To be more serious
by xtabintun

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

I love the hat/bed hair. It's just great. This strikes me as a really gutsy entry, by virtue of the fact that it departs from the "artsy" norm. It's fun, it's free, it's fabulous, and it doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. It's just a silly picture!

Given that, of course, people might tend to mark you down. A lot of voters on this site are very picky about what they give high marks; they have their rubric and if the shoe don't fit, well, that's all there is to it. I think the final score was too conservative myself.

Not to say there's not room for a bit of improvement. (There always is. Unless you're one of those guys who's earned several dozen ribbons--in which case you may well be beyond criticism.) The lighting is pretty good, but a bit flat--somewhat higher contrast would have helped accentuate the facial features. The grey background is good, I think, though it could have stood to be a bit lighter (to differentiate from the skin tones, and because a lighter tone reflects, to some degree, a lighter mood), and the darker areas on the right is a bit distracting.

The cropping is good; I would probably have done the same myself. The eyes are expressive enough as it is. Speaking of the eyes, since they are such a prominent feature in this picture, it would probably have been good to clone out some of the veins in your right eye, at which I find myself staring.

But really, it's a good picture. I would have given it a 7 myself. Keep shooting :)

I will not use woody or any other toys for challenges in 2005!!! Oh Yeah... no more borders either!
by mrorange002

Comment:
Hello from the Critique Club!

Obviously the first thing that I noticed was that this is a blatantly garish image--well pulled off for what it is, being bright and full of clashing colors with a completely zany subject--but of course there are some (or, possibly, many) who would be turned off by such a thing, which will cost you votes. (I guess the choice winds up being between appealing to the masses, and going with your instinct.) I find myself wondering what the heck this thingamajig actually is: who thought it up? what company paid to have them produced? what is it supposed to be? -- All effectively rhetorical questions that will never be answered. Evoking wonder is always a good thing for an image to do.

Technically, this image is excellent. The subtle changes in tone in the background are lovely, and even with the highly reflective subject, you almost completely avoided having any overexposed areas. If I were to be nitpicky, I'd say that you might have wanted to burn in the seams on the metal body just a bit to bring them down a notch from white, but that's not really important.

By way of a possible explanation for the score, I have to say that for all the technical virtuosity of this image and the thematic zaniness, its relevance to the challenge is pretty tenuous. Taking a picture of a wild-eyed robot toy thingy and trying to make it into a New Year's Resolution is creative--but definitely a stretch. Voters probably picked up on this and voted you down accordingly. Nonetheless, it remains a great image on its own and is just begging for any variety of captions...

As Good As It Gets
by rscorp

Comment:
Hmm. I sense a future partnership between you and Starbucks. Great shot. Shallow DOF works beautifully.

Lone Star
by artvet

Comment:
That star is wild.
Lovely minimalism. I like that the entire image is almost a single tone.