through the microscope
by krnodil

Comment:
Positives:
Stunning clarity, good color and a nice macro. Good concept.

Technicals:
You didn't say in the notes, but imply that this was captured through a microscope. You probably need a lensed adapter to prevent REAL vignetting. LOL!!! You can always deal with that problem through cropping, though.

Lighting(away from the vignette), sharpness are exceptional.

The image lacks a central focal object for the human eye to latch onto. It is like a really nice background without a main subject.

The Challenge:
Yup... science all right. :) It placed well and scored above average. This undoutably is because of it's superb technical quality. But the composition itself lacked thematic content or eye attractive viewpoints and that held the score down.

Suggestions:
The image, as it is is fine, but it needs more sharply focused chives positioned in more interesting ways... whatever THAT means. ;) How to do it is another story all together. I doubt you have any control over DOF so that makes that a very difficult job. Just keep moving things around until to get a lot of chive in focus in an interesting arrangement. :)

For less vignette simply crop the image closer. Detail will be larger in the frame and your camera provides plenty of data for you to work with.

Bleeding Hearts
by NstiG8tr

Comment:
Positives:
Selective desat done very well with natural and not overpowering color. Tough to do with reds.

Technicals:
This is a very solid technical achievement all the way around. You did an especially good job with the color boundary. The soft focus background works well.

The composition, though not centered, has a centered framing look. There are a few overexposed "hot" spots in the background. The left flower is SLIGHTLY out of focus.

The Challenge:
Fits the challenge... Duh! LOL. Finished above average and that is good given the subject selection which probably hurt it's score overall. Technical quality saved it.

I voted this image a "7". In my world that means I think it is average. I was influenced by the framing and hots spots. Now I'd score it an "8", because it is definitely above average.

Suggestions:

You have a few background blob-like hot spots in the composition you might consider fixing.

Removing "Hot" Spots
Though "hot" spots, overexposed areas in compositions, are surprisingly tolerated by DPC voters they generally are distractions that should be removed.

There is a simple, but effective technique you can use, probably in a duplicate of your background layer using the clone tool. Here is the trick. Set the opacity of the tool low, around 10%, select an appropriate place to clone from that has some detail to it and then very lightly clone over the overexposed area. You will be surprised how natural the effect is and will not look at all like the place it is cloned from. Amazing what a little blending and brightness difference can accomplish.
End - Removing "Hot" Spots

You might consider different framing of the composition for a more offset look. It's hard to say just how, though. There are a lot of possibilties with this picture. Offsetting the flowers more and framed with an offset vignette done automatically or by hand would work very well with this composition. It is hard to go wrong with vignette highlighting.

You might finally consider using the Sharpen tool VERY gingerly for a bit more sharpness to the left flower. But be careful, of course, because it is easy to screw up. :)

Drive Thru Light
by quiet_observation

Comment:
Positives:
Your perspective allows you to include a lot for viewers to see and think about in a nicely arranged composition that is image processed well.

Technicals:
Image done technically well and very appropritaely as a black and white for the subject. Sharpness good and choice of central focal point works well with the depth of field(DOF). Cropped out Mikky D's Arches nicely! High contrast treatment adds to its visual impact.

The interest objects in the composition are very closely cropped to the edge of the frame. The background building doesn't add much and acts as a viewer distraction.

The Challenge:
Finished 106/302 so positionally speaking it is well above average though the score indicates it is only slghtly above average. The scattering of low scores probably resulted from a couple fringe voters the didn't think it was religious enough for their taste or inappropriate. No biggie.

Suggestions:
This is a fairly long exposure at a high f/stop probably needed to get the distant sign in sharp focus so there is probably nothing you can do to soften the background buildings in-camera. But you might select and blur the background building more in post to lessen it's distracting effects.

Consider widening the composition slightly on the left, right and bottom to keep interest objects from being so close to the edges. Looks like you got framing to work with though you'll have to do some post processing to keep the added space from becoming a distraction itself.

Allure
by adeldegan

Comment:
Composed fine but there are several technical issues to address... mainly that the white balance is probably not correct for the lighting.

1-Shoulder and chest areas have yellow color cast. 2-Face has red color cast. 3-Areas on either side of the nose and around the mouth border on being overexposed. 4-What is probably her hand in the lower left side of the image is a distraction.

Red face and yellow skin can probably be corrected with a remarkably simple "Curves" adjustment layer, maybe both at the same time. In that you create the "Curves" adjustment layer, select the red channel and then drag the center down and away from the word "red". It won't take much. If it does not correct the yellow cast then try creating a "Hue/Saturation" Adjustment layer, select 'yellow' in the popup list and drag the saturation slider left to desaturate the yellows until you get a nice natural skin color. Use a little burn to darken around the nose and mouth a touch for more softness and beauty. Lastly, clone out the segment of hand in the lower left corner of the frame.

Do these things for starters and you will flatter your model better in this photograph.

Cathedral of St Paul
by genghis

Comment:
Nice perspective, great color, exceptional sharpness, great sky... For the print clone out those distracting cars. :)

Yngwie Carrottop
by chip_k

Comment:
Positives:
Very fine capture worthy of inclusion in a rock stars media portfolio.

Technicals:
Composition and framing are excellent. The moment captured is especially good. Lighting and detail are fine. Overall done well except for one thing...

The only major technical flaw is the red oversaturation. I didn't look at this in photoshop but I'd bet money there is plenty of red even in the "black" background.

The Challenge:
Can't argue it doesn't meet the challenge. Ironically, trying to make it match the challenge 'better' might have contributed to it's downfall.

No doubt the oversaturated reds was the main reason for it's low score. It is most apparent in the guitarist's hands which are way to red.

Suggestions:
Here is a shocker for ya... desaturate the red intensity everywhere but the model's hair.

How do you do that? ... Well, I glad you asked...

The easiest way would be to add the red saturation on a duplicate data layer then add a mask to that layer and paint out the oversaturated parts with a black brush on the mask. Basically that means do that everywhere but the model's hair.

If the image was captured in oversaturated reds to begin with you have another option...

Neat technique to correct red skin color
Do a feathered selection including everything EXCEPT the hair and add a new Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. That will create a layer mask that nicely excludes the guy's hair. Then scroll down the color list and select "red". Then simply click the center and drag it down AWAY from the word "red". You will be amazed how much improvment to the image you will make with this simple, easy adjustment.
End - Neat technique

If you run, you will only die tired...
by Efergoh

Comment:
Positives:
Just about everything in this image is done great. The choice for color desaturation is particularly ominous and therefore appropriate.

Technicals:
Someone else is going to have to tell you what the technical flaws are. I don't see any. Some might suggest the shooter's hand is a little overexposed but that probably isn't even true, its just bright. The hand still retains detail.

The Challenge:
Who could argue that this not only meets the challenge but meets it in a particularly meaningful way.

You scored almost EXACTLY at the challenge average. That blows me away. This picture is no more average than a conservative Republican's ideals. :)

This is just pure guessing, but maybe anti-military feeling played a role in voter reaction to this image. Maybe they think noise reduction is overdone.

When this picture graces the cover of a magazine somewhere I'm gonna start a discussion about it beginning with... "I told you so!"

This one is a 10 all the way.

Suggestions:
Apply a little burn to the shooter's hands.

Halfway There
by lunachicken

Comment:
Positives:
No beer drinker could disagree with the choice of color left for this selective desaturation composition. It is a perfect metaphorical choice that gives the viewer something to think about, particularly with the empty chair.

Technicals:
Composition is fine. The black and white tones are well rounded.

The toughest thing in color desaturation is getting the color boundaries right. In this case you had some problems, the color border does not look natural and the color left at the top of the glass is more distracting than not. The whole upper part of the glass above the beer level is particularly unnatural looking. Part of that might have been due to the lighting but probably not much.

Some folks may have thought the line in the table in the foreground was a distraction as well.

The Challenge:
Meets the challenge in a more meaningful way than most of the challenge entries. Voters no doubt gave you credit for that. Its the technical flaws that hurt this image more than anything else and garnered it a below average score.

Suggestions:
Probably the easiest thing would be to desaturate the top of the glass. The color up there is not very good to begin with and getting rid of it would no doubt correct everything wrong with the top of the glass.

To get a color border right you first need to measure the pixel width of surrounding boders. Just count the number of pixels wide the borders are. You may have to go to a 300%-400% view to see the pixels. You will want to set brush feathering compatible with that width when doing the color boundary.

If you could somehow do something with color and hue changes to give the beer a nice golden head that would work GREAT, but I suspect that would be to difficult to get right and look natural.

OK... I'm done with this one... bottoms up, everyone!

Whats your sign?
by tjbel05

Comment:
Positives:
Good selective desaturation concept and the tall framing works well.

Technicals:
You did a good job with the color boundaries, they look pretty natural and the colors don't appear oversaturated. You did well with black and white tonality. Sharpness is centered on the signs as it should be. (You'd be surprised how often we see images where that main subject is not properly focused)

The wire near the top of the sign is a distraction. The composition might be just a bit off with the positioning of the background tree.

The Challenge:
Duh! Meets the challenge all right. LOL!!! Does so with an appropriate use of selective desaturation to make a point.

Voters scored this smack dab in the middle of the road with a 5.4 score matching both the challenge average score given and DPC's overall average score given for all challenges.

Voters thought yours average for the challenge. I scored it a "7" which in my scheme of things means I think it is average as well. So in that regard I pretty much agree with the voters. For me, an image that meets the challenge and doesn't have any serious technical flaws will get an average score of "7" or it will get a higher score it does more than that. It is rare for me to find an image that flat out does not meet the challenge.

Suggestions:
Photography 101 - Always clone out distracting wires!

You can try some of the DOF suggestions I made above to see if you can achieve the effect you want.

Since you will have to re-take the picture to do that anyway then also try moving further to the right and recompose the shot. The reason for that is better placement of the background tree. Moving the sign more to the right of the tree will result in a better composition of image elements. Looks like you can position the sign right in front of the more distant branches to its immediate left so you still have the main part of the house unobstructed and the big tree will be further right.

Getting closer to the sign would be a good idea to and perhaps even necessary for shallower DOF.

The Lone Red Flower
by kellyrc01

Comment:
Positives:
A decent floral desat in a soft focus mode with a supportive black and white background.

Technicals:
The black and white treatment has good tones and full range from pure black to pure white without under or over exposed areas. The color boundary to the B&W is well done. Nice idea to put a red flower with white ones... makes the desat part a lot easier to do.

Interesting this image is so softly focused given it is taken at f/20, perhaps this is because you were in macro mode or possibly camera motion suring the 1/60th second exposure. It has those spotty areas that look slightly out-of-focus which is incompatible with actual distance that we sometimes see with digital images. Not sure how that happens but think it is an artifact of digital image capture.

The red is a little too intense for the composition. Looks like you might have saturated it in post processing. The reddish refelction on the white flower below the red acts as a distraction.

The composition is on the weak side, kinda snapshot-like.

The Challenge:
It meets the challenge but most voters probably thought it a gratuitous floral image so voted it lower. Voters probably wanted to see a reason for the use of desat and did not find it in this composition. Others probably felt it lacked the ever popular "wow" factor so voted it lower for that as well. Some voters may have thought the reddish reflection off the white flower below the red one was color bleeding and marked it down as a technical error. All those reasons combined are probably why it scored below average.

I scored this image 6. That means I felt it was below average but not a "failure". I felt the image was OK but the red was to intense and the reddish reflection on the white flower was a distracting flaw. In my opinion your picture is not "bad". If it were I'd have given it an even lower score than the average DPCer did. I usually vote the "bad" pictures lower than other DPCers and the "good" ones higher.

Suggestions:
Here are some things you might try. Reduce the overall saturation of the red flower so it doesn't hit the viewer over the head then use selective color to darken just the blacks in the red flower to give it more contrast and definition. Clone out the red color from the white flower.

Another thing you might consider is cropping it differently to center the red flower at one of the rule of thirds(ROT) intersection points for greater visual impact. Cropping a lot from the left side to position the red flower centered on the upper left ROT intersection might look quite nice.