Night Tourist
by blemt

Comment:
If this was bigger it would get a really high score from me, as it is I'll give it a 6

Time flies
by xertion

Comment:
Greets from the Critque Club:
Oh sure.. give me a tough one to critique!

This is a really good concept and I like most of the execution. The crispnesss of the watch contrasts nicely with the softness of the trees behind. My only nitpick is the reflection of the clock gives away the illusion for me and I can't suspend my disbelief.

Other than that it is a great photo with no technical flaws - It's well exposed and the composition is great.

Great job and keep up the good work!

-Matt

Altavista
by vcosma

Comment:
Greets from the Critque Club:

Initial Impression:
Nice DOF, good composition, not sure I like the background.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge perfectly!

Compostion:
I like the angle that you photographed this at, it works well. I wish there was more space around the top of the cat's ear and more detail on the fur in the facial area. I'm also not sure about that split background -- it alternates between being interesting and distracting for me.

Technical:
The nice shallow DOF is good. It serves to focus the viewers attention on the cat's eyes. However, that makes me notice that the lighting isn't completely even across the face, another small annoyance.

Artistic:
This is where I think you lost most of your points. Voters here tend to be extremely harsh on pet pictures - if they aren't perfect they'll do badly. While technically good, artistically it suffers. Most voters will look and say "Oh, another pet from above picture - how exciting". This really isn't your fault, but it is something to take into consideration when submitting.

Overall:
A good capture, but lacking in the "wow" factor.

Hope this helps!
-Matt

I didn't do it
by lambrosi

Comment:
Greets from the Critique Club:

Initial Impression:
Cute dog, blurry photo

Challenge:
Meets the challenge perfectly

Composition:
I'm not usually fond of having the subject in the center of the photo but in this case I think it works. The colours work together nicely.

Technical:
This. I'm afraid, is your downfall. The picture is pretty badly out of focus/blurred, possibly because of the long exposure time. The voters here a pretty brutal when it comes to technical issues such as focus.

Overall:
Good subject matter, interesting too look at and well composed but suffers from the bluriness.

-Matt

The Agony of Da Feet
by sher

Comment:
Greets from the Critique Club!

Initial Impression:
Interesting photo, simple but says a lot. Well layed out, missing *something* though.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge perfectly

Composition:
I really like the composition here, there's nothing superfluous - just a nice clean picture. Maybe the only thing I would have done was to exagerate the tilt your left foot to really give the impression of hurting feet.

Technical:
The camera work here is very good. Everything is well exposed and the reflection off the shoes is controlled. Good job.

Processing:
I'm on the fence about the desaturation.. I like the photo as it is, but could see it working in total B&W too. The problem I found with desaturating everything but one colour is that it creates a rather odd effect between the grays and the saturated colour. It's noticible here, but not that strong because the blue and the gray work pretty well together. Desaturating the blue a bit could have helped as well! The border I'm not found of, unfortunately. I'm very much in the "less is more" camp when it comes to borders. However, that's just my personal preference.

Overall:
Good picture, should have scored higher in the competition!

Above Seattle
by timj351

Comment:
Greets from the Critique Club

Initial Impression:
Crisp but no clear point of focus.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge perfectly

Composition:
For me, this is an oddly composed shot. I think I would have preferred more sky to balance all the detail in the bottom of the picture. However, I recognize that the sun is probably just above the top of this picture, making such a composition impractical. That said, I think you did well with what you had. The boat is the closest to being a focal point in this shot, but isn't big enough to hold my attention for long. I think that cropping out some of the foreground would focus more of the attention on the boat and make the nice cuves of the road a focal point as well while still retaining the feeling of "aboveness".

Technical:
Excellent. Details are crisp the shot is well exposed, even with the difficult job of shooting into the sun.

Overall:
Technically a good shot but lacking in the "wow" factor.

-Matt

Frigid Reflection
by indigo997

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club:

Initial Impression:
Wow. A clever idea for meeting the "From Above" requirements!

Challenge:
Meets it perfectly.

Composition:
I can't think of anything that you could have done to improve this composition, other than move all that ice out of the way!
Perhaps rotating picture so that the reflection of the boat to more closely follows the main diagonal... though I really like it the way it is. The colours of the sunset are nicely reflected in the water, and the detail on the boat and the ice is wonderful.

Technical:
Everything is nicely in focus and very sharp.

Overall: Fits the challenge in an interesting and beautiful way. Great job! Sorry I can't think of anything to criticise, but it really is a great photo!

-Matt

Black Heat
by BAMartin

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Initial impressions:
Busy. a bit out of focus, doesn't really capture my eye.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge perfectly

Composition:
The labels show nice details, but I would have prefered to either see more of all the bottles or just one bottle alone. The top and bottom being cut off the Black heat label is slightly annoying to me as well. The colors, on the other hand, are fantastic. They are well saturated and the contrasts make them zing.

Technical:
It seems slightly blury to me, perhaps too shallow a DOF?

Processing:
Nothing glaring in the post processing of the photo.

Overall:
Nice colors, good visual impact, though I would have liked to see more..

-Matt

Finito
by Gracious

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Initial reaction:
Pretty, vibrant colors. Unique but ultimately not effective composition. Fails to hold my eye.

Challenge:
Meets the challenge fine, since it's fairly obvious that it's shot from above.

Composition:
This is where my strongest criticism lies. You have this shot at an interesting angle - the diagonals of the board carry throughout the entire picture. However, the placement of the flowers so that they follow the planks of wood detracts from their impact. A really simple way to increase the visual excitement of your picture would be to position the flowers differently. For example, laying them perpendicular to the main diagonals would provide contrast and more excitement to your composition.

The grain of the wood provides a nice texture to offset the flowers. This is good and I like it, but there isn't enough of it for my taste. I'm a big fan of using negative space to really enhance a subject, and this would have been a great opportunity to do just that. This would have given you the chance for a more exciting position of the flowers within the frame as well. Right now they dominate and don't leave anywhere for they eye to travel. With more negative space you'd have the grain, color, and lines of the wood dominating the picture, then you'd have the splash of color with the flowers.

Post-Processing:
The colors are rich and vibrant, they almost pop out of the picture! They give the flowers an almost surreal quality which I like.

Overall:
Good, but not great - mostly due to the composition.

Hope this helps! Feel free to contact me with any questions you have.
Matt

The Boy with Green Hair
by Kimbly

Comment:
But I want to ask! Please? Can I? Please?

I really liked this shot but am disappointed that it ended up so far down in the pack. Bah. Nice to see you here again Kimbly! I only found this site recently, but I like the work you've done and hoped you would come back!

-Matt