The law says stepmother, she always called her Mommy.
by Darkprincess

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::

Hi Heather

My name is Kari and from the critique club I am currently undertaking a critique of your photo "The law says stepmother, she always called her Mommy". I hope you find this helpful.

Interesting to do a critique on your image but it is difficult if you don't give us much information in your photographers comments. When we do a critique, we go past just the photographic result, that's what voters comments do. The critique looks at what you were trying to achieve, how you wanted it to look and what issues you had in getting the image captured and ready for voting. I am nervous of saything things like sharpen more etc, when you might be going for a softer look, so these details help.

Anyho on we go!

First Impression - the most important one:
I thought this was lovely. I also note the comment that I initially made and what was said by many of the other commentors - we miss the little girls face.

Composition:
This is ok. Not fantastic, but then again, I am still learning how to do fantastic, these things take time and are learnt for most of us! I like that you cropped out the other feet and stuff but there are still a couple of distractions in the ice (dark marks on the left side and at the top a bit of a weird thing going on. I tried cropping them out myself and you can do this without loosing any of the impact of the picture.

Also would like to see the face, but this in itself was a hard shot to take, so I can understand if it wasn't possible, I do think that this counted against you in the long run.

Subject:
Lovely choice of subject matter, which defiantely meets the challenge, and tugged at the heartstrings.

Technical (Colour and light):
This is really lovely picture, I like the use of black and white, play as you can with contrasts and brightness to ensure that this is as chrisp as you need it and then don't forget to sharpen the image after you have reduced its size, this helps to remove some fuzziness.

To grow its vote?:
Take note of what the voters are saying. They have left some really good comments that taken into account will continue to set you up in good steed.

Summary:
Well done, keep it up, can't wait to see the next one.

If you've got any questions about this critique, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.

Cheers

Kari

Before the Alter
by gerakdepan

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::

Hi, I am Kari and from the critique club.

I am currently undertaking a critique of your photo "before the alter". I do hope you find this helpful.

Interesting to do a critique on your image but it is difficult if you don't give us any information in your photographers comments. When we do a critique, we go past just the photographic result, that's what voters comments do. The critique looks at what you were trying to achieve, how you wanted it to look and what issues you had in getting the image captured and ready for voting.

First Impression - the most important one:
What an awesome picture and situation - the caputre of both the mother and the bride is lovely and the crop is interesting and putting the focus on the mother rather than the bride.

Composition:
This is good. My thoughts are that the mother is the subject of the picture, therefore it would have been nice to have her eyes working on the thirds lines a little more. Also the fron object is straight but the doors behind and the ledge above the door is quite crooked - cropping our the ledge may have helped to reduce the feeling of crookedness.

The depth of field here is working really well.

Subject:
Nice choice of subject matter, which defiantely meets the challenge.

Technical (Colour and light):
This is lovely and balanced picture, I get the feeling that it may be in the black and white overkill ... but it may not depending on the colours that are there in the original.

To grow its vote?:
I don't know completely what you were going for without the comments, so am unsure how to comment too much on this. I would think about the cropping, and also consider if colour would have worked to push it into voters faces a little.

Summary:
Well done, keep it up.

If you've got any questions about this critique, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.

Cheers

Kari

Natural Bounce
by KiwiShotz

Comment:
I think that is really cool ... the bounce off the wall at the back really does create that backlight effect being sought.

Time For a Tui Or Two !!!!!
by kiwinick

Comment:
Acutally really impressed, that someone who likes tui can manage to set up a shot like this.

The Beehive Shape
by KiwiShotz

Comment:
Having been there, I think this is a great capture of where parliment sits in NZ ... nice shape.

Vertigo Color Burst
by remarsh

Comment:
Yup vertigo is right ... I like the concept and I think the capture is good.

Bubblebust
by h0bbel

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::

Hi, my name is Kari and I am from the Critique Club. You asked for your image Bubble Burst to be criqued ... lets hope it is painless.

First Impression - the most important one:
Great capture, extremely natural .. lovely colours ... pretty much on thirds.

Composition:
I feel for your kiddy .. but I love the shot. He has used a great colour pipe cleaner, which gives a lovely shot of colour. He is also caught unawares - eyes shut and still blowing ... looks totally unexpected.

Subject:
Great subject. You hit the nail on the button. First entry and in the top 50% ... I hope we see more of this.

Technical (Colour and light):
Very natural colours .. and that is something that is good about this shot. Take note of what the commentors have said about the flash lighting ... although if it is needed ... sometimes using a lamp to counter a flash and work against artifacts works.

To get a Ribbon?:
I think that the DOF ain't too bad for a first go, I would encourage you to practice it, it takes time to get stuff like that right. I like the cropping, but I always try a couple of different ways to make sure it works.

Summary:

Good image size, lovely picture, well taken ... çome back and take some more challenges .. they can get quite addictive.

If you've got any questions about this critique, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.

Cheers

Kari

Summer Sunset
by xXxscarletxXx

Comment:
::: Critique Club :::

Hi, I am Kari and from the critique club.

I really do like the picture that you took of the Sunset .. and it is my turn to critique your entry into patterns.

First Impression - the most important one:
I like the image, it sparked my imagination, I love colour and this has strong colours which are gorgeous.

Composition:
I think you have done well. You have cropped out what you think didn't work and stuck with what you did. I think that it is quite dark and this may have detracted slightly from the patterns, this is something that you pick up from playing around with the brightness and contrast a bit more.

Being fairly new here myself I often do a number of edits before making up my mind which one to enter. This gives me a clearer thought process on entry. You may do this already. You will continue to see improvements.

Subject:
I think that the choice of subject was too esoteric for a lot of the voters and you can see this in a couple of the comments you received. Personally I scored you above average, it is out of the box and sometimes left field doesn't score as well.

Technical (Colour and light):
The colours are nicely contrasting, but maybe a little dark. The Depth of field that you have used works well in this shot and it is clear. You have done well it ensuring that the picture takes the maximum size of pixels 640 longest side (some entries are small and hard to see at times) ... I am not sure what programme you are editing your picture, but there may be a way of optimising the picture when you resize and save as a jpeg to allow your picture to keep more detail.

To grow its vote?:
It is a lovely shot, the problems aren't huge. Sticking to the safe side of challenges would grow your vote, but challenging the voters you may find more fun. So go for it.

Summary:
I understand from the threads what you are saying about "not having a fancy camera with all those lenses etc".. but you have to work with what you have. And you are learning and starting to work with it. You don't need a fancy camera, and really you gotta work with what you got. Just take time and learn about your camera and your software and play.

If you've got any questions about this critique, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.

Cheers

Kari

An Isaiah Burst
by KiwiShotz

Comment:
Love it ... nice shot .. I like the fact that it is not overedited.

"Fairy Godmother"
by espy2

Comment:
Great shot, I love the story and I think the other shot would have been good .. but through the story telling this is so much better.