Flower remedy
by aditi

Comment:
Image is far too small and out of focus

Birds on the Shoreline
by andywightman

Comment:
Thanks for all your comments. I must say I didn't expect this photo to do all that well as I think the colours are quite washed out. The composition pleased me though. As my first entry since July I am happy! The birds are flamingos in Lake Nakuru in Kenya. I was there attending a workshop on land problems and grabbed a couple of hours to visit the National Park. All is not well though and the environment is under threat. Read a recent press story here.

Autumn Tapestry
by Neil

Comment:
Stunning! 10

A sticky end
by sidpixel

Comment:
A good choice of subject weakened by poor focus. Otherwise nicely framed.

The Horseshoe Crab
by Olyuzi

Comment:
This is a striking subject but as an image of a natural phenomenon, it is weakened by the artificial setting and the harsh lighting. Such a subject would be difficult, admittedly, to capture in nature but look closely at many ordinary things (trees, leaves, streams etc.), in varying lighting conditions and from all angles and you will find a subject that fits this challenge and conveys the idea of the humorous, bizarre or wondrous far more effectively that any staged shot.

Uisge Beatha - The Water of Life
by andywightman

Comment:
Hi everyone. Wow! Thanks for appreciating the photo.

We are exposed to a lot of high quality editorial imagery in advertising in the UK and as I was in the isle of Skye, a natural setting seemed a good idea. I saw the wonderful Glenfiddich bottle in my parent's kitchen and decided to use it.

Key to advertising is focus on the product or on the imagery associated with the product. Hence the choice of a natural setting (whisky being a natural product) and the long exposure (16 seconds) to provide the muted but sensuous background. I tried setting the bottle in seaweed and on rocks (Scotch on the Rocks) but it was hard to take a shot that didn't just look like a bottle of whisky sitting on a rock. Hence again the need to do something to the background within the constraints of basic editing.

The bottle is not as sharp as it should be. Perhaps this is due to 4 megapixels and the accumulation of water drops from the waterfall. In a pro shoot the bottle would be shot at 1/250sec or so in same setting ans superimposed in photoshop.

Key to this shot was a tripod. Everyone should have one. Other key thing was a 4x and an 8x neutral density filter. These reduce the light entring the camera and allowed a 16 sec exposure at f7.0. ND filters are an excellent piece of kit allowing long exposures in daylight conditions.

Glare on bottle was not result of flash -none used but the ambient light penetrating the woodland canopy. On a triangular bottle this gave a lot of problems (I've edited most of this and excess water drops out on the print for sale). Ont he comment about neatimage - not used. This is a simple shot using only a long exposure.

Thanks again for all the comments and congratulations to the other ribbon winners.

Pure
by labuds

Comment:
Beautifully captured with a real editorial feel. 10

The Famous Grouse
by bongo

Comment:
Beautiful capture with clear thought given to lighting which is key to an editorial shoot. Personally I find the background a bit odd and IMO the feathers distract a lot from the image. If they were Red Grouse dfeathers that might be different! Still an excellent shot. 9

Society - Do YOU have what it takes !
by ldallek

Comment:
This is a technically well executed image but it appears to be a shot of an advertising board. Thus lacks photographioc integrity IMO. You've shot someone else's artwork.

SourceBook? Wishlist!
by pfellner

Comment:
A technically good shot but not sure what is being advertised - a key issue for an advert challenge.