Sarah Badgerby
77LTDComment by funnylooks: Hello from the critique club!
Firstly, congrats on your highest score! I really like the idea of the image, it fits the challenge well, and I can see why this particular stone would have caught your eye.
One thing to keep in mind, the size/file limit is 640 pixels and 150kb, usually it's a good idea to keep as close to this line as possible, as the smaller the image/filesize the more detail is lost.
One of the most interesting parts of this image is the detail on the stone, and here it's a bit faded out. A couple of suggestions for ways to fix that: adjust the levels/histogram, play with contrast and highlights/shadow. This would also give it a sharper look, though I'd also suggest applying a very light 'unsharp mask' to the photo, just the clean the edges a bit.
I think that increasing the saturation would make this image 'pop' a bit more, and would also suggest considering adding a bit of warmth to the image (while the graves and frost are very cold, this particular stone has a warm glow about it; it's part of what makes it so nice.)
You did an excellent job with composition and depth of field. One thing I noticed is that in the background, there are a couple of large overblown white graves, they're distracting. It seems like the lighting wasn't quite right for the shot. (Perhaps a different time of day?) In advanced editing you could consider either cloning them out, or individually selcting them and changing the tone to something more like the rest of the blue stones.
Once again, congrats on the image, I look foreward to seeing more of your work.
--Mariana (funnylooks)
Feel free to PM me with questions/comments.
