"not my slice"
by sevenine0

Comment by unikorn:
yo no one likes my chubbalicious soda.. haha but i loove ur pizza.. OMG i had a math quiz and there was a question on pizza slices, like the diameter is so many cm and the angle is so many degrees whats the area.. hehe i thought of ur pic (; k well u get a 11 (=
laters

"not my slice"
by sevenine0

Comment by KaDi:
The idea for proportion is alright--just not sure about the lighting. By backlighting the small piece you do make it stand out--but it's a little overly bright. The top of the pizza looks unappetizingly old, therefore not my slice either.

"not my slice"
by sevenine0

Comment by melismatica:
Meets the challenge but it doesn't wow me. The composition looks top heavy and the light shining from beneath the pizza slice just confuses me.

"not my slice"
by sevenine0

Comment by admart01:
I like you're use of light (or could it just be I'm hungry??) :)

"not my slice"
by sevenine0

Comment by Go-KL:
Original, nicely captured, something I can relate to....

My Balcony at Night
by sevenine0

Comment by dixonp1:
Don't quit your day job.

My Balcony at Night
by sevenine0

Comment by willem:
very uninteresting. Better go out during the day and find something different. Sorry.

My Balcony at Night
by sevenine0

Comment by scottwilson:
To me this looks like a last minute snap just to have something to submit. The bright light wants to be the focus of the photo but there is nothing really interesting there.

The Strength to Choose; The Power to Kill.
by sevenine0

Comment by tyrkinn:
*** Greetings from the Critique Club ***

Hi Cole.

Challenge
I think you have a good shot there, but I don't think it fits the challenge entirely. The title seems to shue-horn the photo into the challenge, and it would not surprise me if you took it for something else. I would not phrase it like it were a strength to choose, would rather say the power to choose (different meaning in my mind at least). In this case it would be strength to be able to avoid the addiction.

Composition
Composition seems pretty basic here, and it works well. Putting the ashtray in front with the egg and the chicken behind it works very nicely for my eyes. This angle works well for this kind of propaganda, it puts the egg "in-your-face" and the chicken behind like it's not thinking about the egg (if you know what I mean...)

Lighting
I think the lighting is excellent in this setting. the egg is well lit and the ashtray and chicken are sufficiently lit, but in a way that makes these elements secondary to the egg (nicely done). Background all-black and totally non-distracting. Good.

Camera work
Excellent work on the camera, I know what it's like to operate this kind of equipment (have a G3 myself) and working in these kind of conditions is not easy at all. I especially noticed how nice your DOF is, all of the ashtray is crystal clear, while the chicken is just perfectly blurred into the background. Excellent work, I thought this was a DSLR shot when I saw it first.

Post-Processing
Not sure what you did in PS (or similar) but it looks unedited and that is always good. You probably had to do something to get the background as black as it is and while keeping the objects right, and you seem to have done very nicely. Would like to see this a bit sharpened, but I'm not sure it would be better, this looks really nice.

Title and Info
Like I said before, the title seems to shue-horn the shot into the challenge, although it has a kind of propaganda ring to it (I am icelandic, english is not my native language like you can see on my spelling ;). Info is not good enough in my opinion, you did not enter the basic info (aperture, iso, shutter) that is very easily available both in camera and in most viewer software. In "Photographer's Comments" I would like to see how your setup was done, how you got the background so nicely black and what you did in post-processing (although it's right, smoking does kill). I always check these things when I'm browsing DPC, it's a great learning tool for me and others.

Overall (my opinion)
Overall, I think it's a very nice shot, but maybe in a wrong challenge, and I think that explains the low score. You obviosly spent a lot of time and effort on this and the outcome is great IMHO. The Beau (?) on the egg might be a tiny bit lower to show the form of the egg, but that's about all I can suggest. You really pulled good work out of your G5, should not let the low score get you down, keep on submitting.

Hope this helps,

Best regards, Tyrkinn

Lucky Charms
by sevenine0

Comment by borison:
Serendipity is a difficult concept to visualize. For me it means being at the right place, at the right time, and being lucky enough to capture something unique. Some of these entries are set up shots trying to illustrate that concept, and some record a serendipitous moment experienced by the photographer themselves. I think this is an example of the former. An actual four-leaf clover would make a wonderful subject matter for serendipity, but this image is too dark and fuzzy to successfully portray it.