Defiance
by MeGoobie

Comment:
Nice image with decent tones, good BW. Looks like the Oregon, USA coast to me. Chosing to use 720 pixels for the vertical height is not a good one for most images because of screen limitations and will result in lower scores from some viewers.

Alabama Hills and Sierra Nevada Mountains
by 2mccs

Comment:
Nice image, good landscape and I hate to say this but the horizon does not look level. The foreground Alabama Hills look fine but the background snow covered mountains and sky are obviously tilted counterclockwise several degrees. Try correcting for the background horizon and you may find it DOES look better. :)

Mountainous
by junior_z

Comment:
Incredible view and a nice BW but the use of grain in the sky and the white speck in the sky probably does not work well for most voters.

Natural Colors
by mergan9213

Comment:
Good image, nice silhouette, but you want to be sure your horizon looks level even if reality is different. :)

The Storm (BASIC editing)
by talikf

Comment:
This is an amazing lightning bolt you captured. Very dramatic and you even got a wonderful reflection across the foreground boats. I've tried photographing lightning on numerous occasions and I can tell you this, you will be hard pressed to capture more this good. It looks like it was captured early morning or dusk which is even more difficult for lightning.

With this image it might be time to learn more sophisticated editing if that is the reason you submitted under basic editing only(though you did make it 720 pixels wide). This picture deserves better treatment.

You might want to consider cropping about 100 pixels or so from the far right. This will offset the bolt for added viewer interest and counterbalance it against the darker clouds on the right. There is much that can and should be done with this image with post processing. If done this one is worthy of selling and hanging framed on walls.

This image will get a good score because it is such a dramatic capture, but it SHOULD have been a ribbon winner.

Sea Storm Rising
by hihosilver

Comment:
Positives:
Color, content, technical quality are all strong in this composition. It has a pre-storm tranquility to it that is emotionally attractive. You captured the flight of birds in a visually appealing orientation.

Technicals:
Very high technical quality. Lighting and exposure are just right and the horizon is level. Very nicely composed. Colors, particularly the browns and blues, are strong but not overdone. The clouds are prominent and dramatic. The detail in the rocks is very well captured. Sharpness is just right and there is NO digital artifacting. Composition is strong with the big rock with sitting birds on the left balanced against the breakers and dark ominous clouds on the right. Lighting and shadows on the rocks are particularly appealing. There is a black patch on the far left just below and to the right of the birds that looks strange. The shadowing on the rocks is generally god but there are a couple rocks, particularly those just below and behind the big rock with the birds where there might need to be more detail. But other than those minor issues there is little that can be faulted about this image.

The Challenge:
This seascape fits the challenge very well. Seascapes traditionally do very well at DPC because they add plenty of visual interest. The detail of the birds in flight adds greatly to voter appeal. The strength of the scene and the technical quality of the image will affect this image's score more than anything else.

Suggestions:
Perhaps do something about bringing out amore detail in the black patch to the right of the sitting birds and on some places in the rocks.

Nice... nice... nice!

Wisconsin
by eamurdock

Comment:
Nice minimalist, low-key composition. Great way to go when you got a lousy sky and not much snow. LOL!!!

To dream of home...is to dream of green.
by DrAchoo

Comment:
Wonderful waterflow image... looks to have just the right amount of flow pattern to fit the scene but not to much to wash out the flow detail. Pleasant subtle off-centering of the falls and the greens of the moss and browns of the foreground creek bank makes for a nice visual color contrast. Looks like Oneonta Gorge in the Columbia River Gorge of Oregon. Been close but never photographed there. Looks like I need to. :) If I don't miss my guess, you were probably standing in some VERY cold water to capture this image. Beautiful capture!

City Nights
by escapetooz

Comment:
Positives:
Overall general technical quality is good.

Technicals:
Color, sharpness, lighting and most technical issues are very good.

The Challenge:
I agree this is a night shot and meets the challenge but fringe voters may disagree and think it is not and vote differently. Meeting the challenge is NOT the main issue with this image. What is are technical issues such as 'unique' lighting, composition and perspective moreso than anything else.

Suggestions:
Chose a different perspective, lighting or perspective for this subject. If changing lighting is not an option, as I suspect it is, then use dodge and burn and/or other post processing techniques to make the appearance of this image more interesting to the average viewer.

Tailspin
by colorcarnival

Comment:
Positives:
Nice black background and golden colors are strong points in this composition.

Technicals:
Golden color is nice. The main technical feature that hurt this in scoring is the minor defects in the dark areas of the background. There are some other apparent defects inside the lighted areas as well.

The Challenge:
What will bug voters more than anything else is that they really cannot tell what the main subject is. True that if you look closely, you can tell what it is, but for DPC you have a very short time to communicate your subject to voters. If you don't achieve that within afew SECONDS then you'll get a lower score.

Suggestions:
Remove the defects in the black and lighted areas of the image. Take more and different images of the scene that better shows the coins clearly.