Me
by Carpe Diem

Comment by Matthew:
I think that this pic deserves much better - I really like the angle and the detail. Creative cropping creates tension in the frame. People worry too much about things like blown highlights - which really do not affect the quality of this photo too much.

Me
by Carpe Diem

Comment by Rebecca:
This is just cropped way too tightly. It's disconcerting that one of your eyes is left out. There are also too many blown highlights.

Me
by Carpe Diem

Comment by cheegirl:
cute, nice angle

Me
by Carpe Diem

Comment by Art Roflmao:
You can't go through life looking over your shoulder. ;-)

Me
by Carpe Diem

Comment by rscorp:
I really like the pose and tilt a lot, your expression is really nice, but not wild about the over-exposure on your face.

Wedding.
by Carpe Diem

Comment by ellamay:
Greetings from the CC.
I think this shot is ok. I think what it lacks is WOW factor. It is sort of well, boring. The light is average the composition is average. If you shoot white flowers, maybe bring some black fabric as a backdrop and then you have a drama. Also you may just try and get some golden light, waiting til sunset or sunrise and shoot with the light directly on subject vs. behind it. What I DO like is the blurred flowers on the right in the background finding an angle to shoot by which all of the background is blurred would also take away those really overexposed white areas.
I am being very critical cuz you said you were new and wanted to know. So I want to give you somethings to think about, that being said, the shot is sharp and you have really gotten close to your subject and you did pick something of beauty to shoot...all pluses in my mind. Keep up the good work and the 'wow' part will come : ) happy shooting!

Walking Around
by Carpe Diem

Comment by TooCool:
From the Critique Club:

First off let me say that I am always honored to help out our younger community members. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to PM me at any time!

Now to your photo. First off I would like to say that you have a very nice composition here. You used the rule of thirds (whether you knew it or not) to give a very pleasing effect. This makes me think that you have some nice raw talent. However, looking at your comments, I see that you took this shot on a windy day. Your shot is very soft and this may be why. It looks like either your focus was off or the flower was moving around a bit giving it a little bit of motion blur.

It appears that you got the exposure here nice and proper. You can tell from the detail in the white petals. It is hard to get such detail and not end up blown out or with muddy greys instead of white. Your whites are a TOUCH dark but not too much. You may be able to fix this in post processing using levels.

I see that you shot this at ISO 400 according to your notes. I wonder why that is? Was it an overcast day? Was it in a shadowy area? Whenever possible, and especially with Point and Shoot cameras such as yours, it is important to use ISO 100 or lower if this camera has it. You will have much less noise in your shot. You can see the noise in this shot in the greens of the background leaves. It looks a bit grainy. The side effect of the lower ISO though is slower shutter speeds which make it harder to get nice shots of things that are moving.

My last question for you is this... Does your camera have a tripod mount on the bottom? If so, you should always always always use a tripod unless there is a specific reason not too. In this example, even with the wind moving your subject, by isolating (making it as still as possible) the camera you make it easier to get a nice sharp image. When I had a camera similar to yours, my photography took off by leaps and bounds when I was given a tripod to use. I would always put the camera on the tripod and use the timer to keep the camera nice and still.

One final thing that probably brought your score down is the DNMC nazi's. Does Not Meet the Challenge will make even the nicest shot score much lower than it deserves. In this instance, I do not believe that the voters saw this as a photojournalism type shot...

I hope you find something here useful. I know it's kinda a lot to digest therefore, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me or ask in the forums. Whatever you do, take your camera everywhere and shoot shoot shoot... I look forward to seeing you improve with practice!

Yours
TC

Message edited by author 2006-05-10 19:52:03.

Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.
by Carpe Diem

Comment by smist:
Haha, never heard this one..

Walking Around
by Carpe Diem

Comment by Gunnsi:
This picture is not at all horrible.
IMO I would have cropped a bit from the bottom. Colours are nice and focus could be sharper but is ok.
I think that the main reason for you to score so low is because of the title not fitting the competition. This is not a catchy headline.
Better luck next time. :-)

Walking Around
by Carpe Diem

Comment by snapz:
I like the shallow DOF in this pic. I think I would have tried to go even more shallow. I think this photo would benifit from a different crop as the bottom half of this pic leaves me wanting more. I would have tried to emphasize the white petals among the green leaves and the trunk of the tree. Since this is a photjournalism challenge I would have gone with a title such as "Flower and Garden Show This Weekend" or something like that.

All comments are meant to be constructave. Please take them as such. Good luck in this challenge!