Homage to Three Worlds
by VBW

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique Club*

I must admit, whilst obviously, I've heard of MC Escher I had not heard of his three worlds so I had to google it, delightful. A competent image that meets the challenge and should have scored better, It certainly doesn’t deserve all those sub fours.

I really don't think you have a problem with the focus, you have to accept that you are shooting through water which inevitably is not going to give you the same sharpness as air. At least you have managed to avoid the common problem in this situation of focussing on the waters surface which certainly would have rendered the fish soft. If you manage to come up with the magic formula in post-processing that will render unsharp images sharp then I will be delighted to hear from you.

As you rightly point out the 'pollen' on the waters surface is distracting and would benefit from removal and it may be this alone that has resulted in its lower than deserved score. I know its removal would have been tedious but I think it would have been worthwhile. Perhaps a quicker approach would have been to select these with colour range and simply subdue them thus making them much less conspicuous.

I like the dynamic shape and the dorsal fin just breaking the surface, I like its vivid colouring, I like the distorted reflections from the ripples, the reflections themselves are not too bad either, shame there weren't the leaves to complete your homage but a very good attempt I would say.

Happy fishingâ€Â¦ Sid

Shrine of the Southern Buddha
by VBW

Comment by cowboy221977:
Hello from the critique club...

It appears that you have already gotten a pretty in depth critique from skewsme. I agree dpc can be a tough crowd but you can learn a ton here. For the most part I agree with her. However I think the lighting is ok but the sky is a little bit blown out. Hey keep it up. Happy shooting.

Homage to Three Worlds
by VBW

Comment by P-A-U-L:
Such super colours. I would have had to give this a good dose of the oil painting filter and get a DQ but it would be worth it

Pink and Black Days: Straight out of camera
by VBW

Comment by P-A-U-L:
There is something really special about this image and with a bit of processing could look even better.

You may not be a fan of my processing but here are a couple of quick edits that I quite like. They are quite similar.

Pink and Black Days: Straight out of camera
by VBW

Comment by MEJazz:
I like the retro radio. Didn't knew they were making them in fancy colors even before the era of Apple

Shrine of the Southern Buddha
by VBW

Comment by skewsme:
This was a tough challenge because most people don't like photos of monuments to begin with. And then, you have a few things going on here that 'the typical dpc voter' will mark down. Blurry stuff in the foreground, subject is not the most focused thing in the shot, colors are rather drab, light is not interesting or directional, seems like buddha and sky may be a little overexposed... yeah it's a tough crowd. There are some other voters here who will applaud you if you dare to take risks in your shot or its processing, but that probably won't improve your score. If this were mine, I might have tried for a mystical feel with some gaussian blur or glowy processing and more color saturation, and nonetheless landed at the same score ;-) Learn all you can, but ultimately, make images to please yourself.

Pink and Black Days: Straight out of camera
by VBW

Comment by oldbimmercoupe:
if you have to tell us ...

Pink and Black Days: Straight out of camera
by VBW

Comment by Mike:
i would have given a higher score if you didn't ruin the surprise.

Pink and Black Days: Straight out of camera
by VBW

Comment by EL-ROI:
Great technicals... I think it could use some post processing to give it some pop!

Shrine of the Southern Buddha
by VBW

Comment by PaulFrocchi:
Looks peaceful. Unfortunately, this was not an image I scored very high (4). For me, I think there my be more choices to the composition. I am never one to crit someone's vision. Because it's your vision. But for me personally, the trees on the left make me uncomfortable in what I feel should be a tranquil setting. Good Luck!