Electrical High Tension
by LaRee

Comment:
Interesting, but I don't like that the bottom is cut off -- poor composition I think. Could also use some more color (saturation). The sharpness is great though.

Riding the Wake
by summerlovin

Comment:
Main subject is blurry. I know that seems obvious and 'duh', but a blurry subject bugs me more than anything.

Git Back!
by serogers

Comment:
The only thing that kept me from scoring this higher was the focus on the guy in blue. My eye is drawn to him, but he's a little soft (aperture a bit on the large side?). Normally it wouldn't matter too much, but he really is the subject in the image.

P1010661.jpg
by dcb300

Comment:
(copied from forum)

So, you are asking about the processing once you have the photo? I'll try to lean towards that.

The subject is pretty cool -- a hairy spider, out in the open, on a pretty uniform background. It looks a bit out of focus (or maybe your shutter speed was too low to hold your camera in your hands). Also, the image is pretty flat (all similar shades) but that is common for unedited images.

Other than the focus/blurred subject (which you'll have a lot of difficulty getting super sharp, although some people know tricks), you can help the image a lot. First, playing with curves / contrast /histogram adjustment or whatever it is called in your software would help you figure out how to make the spider stand out more. You seem to have a lot of grays and blacks but no super-white whites.

Next, consider desaturating it (removing the color). For one thing, the bluish spots on the rock are rather distracting, and there isn't much color in the image. If you desaturate it, increase contrast (maybe even increase it a lot to make the scene more dramatic, it might help a lot).

Compositionally, I like the crop quite a bit how it is. I think it'd be too boring with the spider smack in the center and nothing looks bad in the image.

So, if you are a beginner, this is a great picture. Top priority should be learning to process images (Photoshop elements, Paint Shop Pro XI, and others all have free 30-day trials -- download them and start playing with them!).

Aside from that, where did you find such a huge hairy spider? I'd love to photograph a spider like that!

Train Ride
by Liehsc

Comment:
(copied from forum post)

Nice silhouette -- this is a type of image that I've never really done before but am looking forward to it. It clearly tells a story (boy looking at train) without clearly showing the boy or train. Good sharpness, good contrast. Good selective focus on the boy (it would lose the dreamy quality if the train was sharp, I think). After all, the subject of the photo is the boy.

Definitely like the desaturation in this one. I'm not sure it'd work in color.

Composition is good, although I'd like to see a tighter crop to make the image a bit more 'intimate'. Really draw the viewer in to the boy. You could crop out the white space above the train easily, you might even be able to crop out the top half of the train and still keep the idea (probably not though, now that I think about it). A lower vantage point might help, if you could take it again, to get tight with the boy yet clearly show the train.

That's about it -- a nice image.

Oh, one other thought -- would it be cool if you could get some motion blur on the train? Good luck getting the kid to sit still though :)

B & W Collection
by mia67

Comment:
(copied from forum)

First off, good subject, good expression, good composition, good looking kid. I really like the desat and border too.

The image has a lot of grain to it which I could go either way on. Part of me wants to see the whole thing softer with low noise, and part of my likes the grain (even exagerate it). I don't think either way is wrong, but I'd decide which way you want to go and try doing it a bit more than it is to see what it looks like.

It has good contrast but the arms are a bit blown out. For what you're trying to portray, the arms are a bit too harsh (this is definitely a photo you want to have a soft feel in both sharpness and emotion). Maybe a little burning would help the face draw the eyes.

The image isn't the sharpest, but I'm not sure it should be. It isn't a sharp moment.

Conclusion: Good image, maybe some minor post processing you can do to it. As far as avoiding blowing out the arms, I'll be the first to admit you rarely get a chance to think about stuff like that when shooting your kids. I think instead you should congratulate yourself on getting a good expression on her face: IMHO, that's the hardest thing of all.

If you have time, I'd say play around with some advanced processing: burning the arms, smoothing the noise (or increasing the noise), maybe even a vignette effect. It'd be a great learning experience.

Hybrid Tulip
by Greetmir

Comment:
(copied from forum)

I like the subject -- I'm a sucker for flower shots myself, and this tulip is strange looking in a neat way. The lighting seems good and the small depth of field (blurring the background) is appropriate for the type of image. The semi-transparent border (with the stem going across it) is very appropriate -- I was actually thinking of doing a similar border on one of my own images lately.

Compositionally, a centered flower makes sense, although the petals are symmetric but not quite symmetric -- that bothers me a little bit. Nothing major though.

Saturation seems good, although I'd like to see a little more and compare -- it might help a bit.

Three major complaints though:
1. Focus. The front of the flower is in focus, the back isn't. It detracts a lot from the quality of the image since there is a lot of detail in the back of the flower. Actually, looking at it, the flower looks almost superimposed on the background -- did you use a soft focus filter or is it just my eyes playing tricks on me?
2. Blown highlights. The tips of the petals are blown to full white, as far as I can tell. This is one of those cases where shooting raw might help and decreasing your exposure slightly to avoid blowing the highlights.
3. Noise. The image has a decent amount of noise to it, especially in the background. Noise in the flower doesn't show too much but the background noise hurts the image. The good news is that neatimage is free to download, and there are a host of other programs that would clear that up yet leave the detail in the flower.

Obviously, 1 and 2 need to be addressed when the image is taken, and 3 could be fixed now. The good news is it really isn't the subject and composition, all of that is good. Just a little more aperture and a little less exposure and you'd have a great file to process. Overall, a good image and good presentation, just a few minor things to fix to make it a great image.

Phototropic
by zeuszen

Comment:
(copied from forum)

Ok, this will be the last one for tonight -- I'll make sure to do the rest tomorrow or Sunday.

If I were to say anything for this one, it would be lines. Lots and lots of lines :) Nice composition, I like the fact that it isn't perfect. And you can tell it is some sort of plant.

I'm not convinced about the desat -- it looks like a plant, my eyes feel like it should be green. But, that's highly subjective, so feel free to ignore me. My wife does all the time.

It seems to have good contrast to me, good mix of lights and darks -- I like it a lot the way it is.

My one major complaint is it seems to be oversharpened, or alternatively, at too low a resolution. The lines get pretty spotty and secondary patterns develop from the hotter pixels from sharpening. Kind of reminds me of an electron microscope.

How to fix it, I'm not sure. It is so simple and I'm afraid if it is any softer you'll lose the lines due to resolution. Interesting -- at first I found it kind of boring, but the more I stare at it, the more interesting it becomes.

EDIT: After posting, I looked at the thumb again -- you did a real good job with the tones and overall shapes and it comes out at lower resolution. It might be very pleasing softer.

Desert Rocks
by BAMartin

Comment:
(copied from forum)

I'm going to steal stdavidson's template and see how that goes:

Positives:
Interesting variety of texture and colors, including rocks, sand, cactuses (cacti?) and the far off dark rock/mountain thing. At least to me, it seems like an interesting place.

Technicals:
Compositionally, I feel like the dark rock should either be centered or at one of the rule of thirds positions, and likewise for the horizon-line (or maybe a slight rotation to the right would help). The dark rock definitely is the most interesting part of the composition, and I wish we could see more of it as it looms over the land -- it also contrasts nicely with the sky and other elements.

There's a decent amount of noise in the sky which is surprising considering your camera, ISO, etc. Maybe it is oversharpened? Likewise, the rocks and cacti seem noisy but not super sharp at the same time. Strange. Nothing super horrible, but the noisiness in the sky probably hurt your score.

Contrast is good, might have benefitted from some fill light (or narrowing the dark range) so the shadows aren't quite as extreme. But lets face it, you're going to get dark shadows at that time of day.

The Challenge:
Yes, it is a landscape. Seems to fit the challenge pretty well, although it classically landscapes are a little more broad and sweeping: your focusing on the rocky hill in front of the further mountain may have hurt you a little.

Suggestions:
I think the dark mountain in the background in the background makes a great subject, but maybe a different vantage point would help to really show its mass and highlight it a little better. Taking the picture in the morning or evening would have softened the shadows and added a bit too.

Beyond that, playing with curves might have reduced the 'high-noon' look to it, and definitely run a noise filter on the sky to clean it up a bit. Not a bad image at all, but it doesn't capture the imagination as much as you'd like for DPC success.

IMG_2402ecrop.jpg
by Ben

Comment:
(from forum)

Damn, I was going to try to do some work, then I saw this one. I'll do this one then I'll do an hour of work :)

This image is striking to say the least. If you were trying to make the viewer feel that an unhappy guy is invading his/her space, you did it well. I'm assuming this is a self-portrait, at least from what I saw on your profile. You could scare young children with that look.

This is one of those images where the thumbnail is almost better than the full-size version. It just feels like some of the technicals aren't quite there. To pull this off, you need an angry look (check), harsh (hard) lighting (check), selective focus (check -- is that the filter on the image's page?), and some sharply in focus eyes (almost check). I really, really want to see the eyes in super detail (and the appropriate part of the face/nose as well, which is close). That would give the feeling of someone getting so close you can't focus on anything but his eyes, and he is close enough you can see the pores on his nose. The right eye, in particular, seems soft, but the left does too.

If this is a self-portrait, than yeah, that focus is hard to get because you can't line it up. If you are taking a photo of someone else, switch to a single focus point, focus on their lower eye, reframe, and shoot. Alternatively, that might be due to a shutter speed that was slightly too long and the model moved.

Other things that could improve the image: I feel the face is a bit overexposed and the eyes are too dark. The overexposure works well, actually, and I think you should keep it. If you took it again try to get a smaller tonal range by increasing the fill light around the eyes (maybe a piece of paper reflecting from under the camera?) and expose everything a little less. The paper/reflector also might put a nasty little glint in the eye too. Then apply the overexposure to the face in post-processing using curves if desired. It'd just give you a little more flexibility in processing if you don't blow the highlights out.

If the out of focus regions are from a soft-filter, keep it -- it is working really well. Just preserve the eye focus because that's where your viewer will be looking.

Other comments -- the background is appropriate -- I actually like it darker on the right and lighter on the left. Are you holding the camera with your left arm? The border bugs me because it is uneven... silly, I know, but it'd be nice if it was the same size all around.

Summary: so, yeah, I said a lot, but lets be honest -- the picture is really close to perfect as it is. Very unsettling.

Message edited by author 2007-04-29 14:26:05.