Pepper Core
by dahved

Comment:
A nice clean capture, but perhaps if you had just shot it agianst the yellow and missed out the blue it would have had more impact?

Smoking: A "waste" of life
by cowcollect

Comment:
A lovely 1950's looking B&W;)

Mess
by arsenal

Comment:
Nice and moody;)

Spill the Beans
by soup

Comment:
Simple, clever and some really good prints that CSI would be proud of;)

Bones
by Jaimeson

Comment:
I like the tones and textures here, as well as the shallow depth of field.

Friends
by CalliopeKel

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club!

I really did not want to get this one. I went to confession twice having voted on this one and my husband thinks it is our new screensaver!

And this is a first for me - I pulled this yesterday and decided to leave it till the morning. As a result I had a series of nightmares: I was working at a big company and left for a holiday. I forgot about the two rabbits in the cage by my desk. When I returned the rabbits had multiplied but were all thin and diseased from lack of food and water. When I tried to pick them up they fell through my fingers as there was nothing to hold on to! I tried to hide all this, but someone found out. EVERY one in the company shunned me, practicaly spitting at me in disgust when they passed. I decided to leave, got into the lift to go down 6 floors, only the lift kept going and speeded up. It just kept going down and down and I was convinced I was going to die. See what you did to me?:))

This is a lovely black and white image. It's one of the few that I don't have to think 'is it high contrast or not?'. It meets the challenge perfectly.

Compostionally, there is a lovely balance between the subject and negative space. The viewer's eye is led back and forth between the model's eyes and the rabbit's eye, ensuring the image is not static.

There is so much expression in the model's eyes that you can't fail to feel 'something' when you look at them. Blame the nightmare, but I can't help thinking of 'Fatal Attraction' when I look at it - when Glenn Close boils the rabbit in the pot. If you had her instead of Fetor in this image, it would have been the perfect publicity poster for the film:)

The blacks in the image are wonderful. I love the way the black body of the rabbit has melted into the black background.

To be honest I never even noticed the pillow before - too busy looking at...well you know...but changing it to white was simply the icing on the cake.

What more can I say? I'm off for a bit of counselling and another visit to the confessional;)

Message edited by author 2005-09-18 20:43:02.

HOT & COLD
by usia

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club!

This is another creative take on the challenge. The contrast between fire and ice is indeed high contrast and shows originality.

The execution though has let you down: Compositionally, you have missed what should be the main focus of the image - the words and the fire.The bottom half of your image is wasted space and adds nothing to the picture. Had you focused more on the words and the fire your image would have been dramatically improved. As it is, the main focus has been dissected, which changes the whole esence of the photograph.

The lighting is too harsh for your creative idea. You have blown highlights on the bottom of the ice bag, when what you really needed was dramatic lighting to bring out the fire, letting the fire itself, perhaps, highlight the words.

The focus too seems a little off - a smaller aperture (16 or 22) would give you a greater depth of field, bringing the whole image into sharper focus.

This is a very original, creative idea, but it's execution let you down.

Message edited by author 2005-09-17 23:03:49.

This one is unique.
by djonson

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club!

This is a creative take on the challenge! Speaking as the black sheep of my own family I can really empathise with this poor little guy.

The image has many layers of interest moving from front to back:
First the black sheep itself - you can almost feel that wool! His legs up in the air could be interpreted as an act of surrender or hopelessness.
Then we have the farmer, expertly handling the poor sheep. The physical exertion of lifting is shown to us by the redness of his face when compared to the paleness of his hands, adding another area of high contrast.
Next we have the white sheep who seem to blend into one, which protects the individual sheep from being picked on - unlike the poor black one.
Then there is the layer of people in the background that gives us a sense of the place and culture.
Finally, we have the mountain as the back-drop to the whole scene.

The viewer's eye is led into the picture by the black sheep's body on the bottom left. It then follows a nice diagonal up through the sheep's eye, the farmer's face and then to the two people on the right, giving a sense of depth and movement to the image.

There is a lovely balance of colour in the image, with tones of blue and white dominating. This also convey's a feeling of coldness to the viewer which matches the scene perfectly.

The white sheep on the right seem a little overexposed, but that seems to make sense in terms of them blending together, in total contrast to the black sheep. As that is the whole point of the image, the overexposure doesn't really matter;)

Necking In The Shadows
by sajin

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club!

This image really is appealing. It appears to capture an expression and emotion that we normally associate with people. It's hard to look at that expression and not believe that the giraffe is expressing 'love'.

The eye is led dynamically into the picture through that long neck. Almost like an arrow, it directs the viewer to the crux of the image - the entwined heads and that expression. It is this that really holds the viewer's attention.

I think the voting reflects the problem people had with the image fitting the challenge well. For me personally, there is contrast but not high contrast. Bumping up the saturation may have rectified this, but I feel something of the lovely simplicity and charm of the image may then have been lost.

You have,though, produced an image that is a pleasure to look at, and that is more important than scores in my opinion;)

Beauty in the Mundane
by brianlh

Comment:
Hi from the Critique Club!

One of the joys of doing these critiques is that it forces you to take the time and effort to really look at an image and bypass quick first impressions.

So here I am being forced to look at a brick wall;) As a high contrast study it works. But there is no focus point to satisfy the eye...until you are forced to stare at it. The brain, searching for something, anything, to focus on starts to notice subtle differences in each brick and area of the wall. Now it notices the colour differences in each brick. The way the light catches each one uniquely. Then you find Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall' lyric going round and round your head...and you begin to think philisophical thoughts about how it relates to people and capitalism...and then you remember it's just an image of a brick wall:))

Message edited by author 2005-09-13 06:08:33.