Country scene
by Rino63

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

My thoughts on the image: This one nicely fits into the challenge, and I love the detail you captured on the skin. My mind can almost feel the smoothness and warmth that is surely contained there. I do not, however, like the plastic animals. This isn't to say that I don't like the idea. I like the penguins that Magnus used in his presentation, and Allan Teger's work is both amazing and inspiring to me. He really is brilliant in his imagination and ideas.

My ideas for improvement: I'd like to have seen this one presented with more of an Alan Teger style and a better choice of toy animals. I also think that a monochrome presentation would have served this one better than color.

Where I would have/did score this entry: I didn't vote in the nude challenge this round as I have spent far too much time at work lately. With that in mind, I would have most likely agreed with the voters. As you have presented the image here, I would have given it a 4 or 5. With more attention to the animals and monochrome post-processing, I think this one would have pulled a better score.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

On His Mark
by LadyK

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

My thoughts on the image: My initial impression of this image and the presentation is strong. I am not a fan of the male nude form overall, but this is very nicely presented. I like your toning and composition. The flow of the body plays very strongly with the mind's eye to lead it into and throughout the image. Your clarity and detail also serves to strengthen the image well.

My ideas for improvement: I'd like to see the lighting just a touch more even. I agree with Robin that the shadow that the head casts on the right arm is a little bit distracting, but not overly harsh by any means. As odd as it may seem, I'd actually like to see the feet a little more crisply focused. I'd also like to see more attention paid to the symmetry of the model's hands. You did a very nice job with symmetry in the framing and cropping, so I think it should carry over to the hands as well. The position of the feet need no adjustments.

Where I would have/did score this entry: I didn't vote in the nude challenge this round as I have spent far too much time at work lately. Glancing through the scores and results however, I would have voted this one as a 6 or 7. With that in mind, I do believe that the image was scored appropriately by the voters. Congrats on a well presented image and a well scoring entry.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Motown Magic
by Senay

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: The various colors that you captured are very nice here. I also like the crisp focus you caught on the water. It looks like some of the crispness was lost on the skyline itself with the HDR treatment.

Lighting: Again, very nice. Nice work capturing the busyness of the city in colors.

Composition/Content: Even fairly centered, the composition flows nicely.

My Opinion: HDR is not one of my favorite styles of photography. It is a difficult style to pull of, especially with dark, night shots. This one still has some reality to it, but I think the darkness of the overall capture detracted from your score.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Le Vieux Moulin
by AmeedEl-Ghoul

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Nicely focused and pleasantly crisp.

Lighting: The sunrise is unbelievable. Wonderful colors and well captured. I'd like to see the tower exposed a little more, but not enough to take away from the score.

Composition/Content: Nice composition. The tree touching the mill is a slight bit distracting. Perhaps a slight change in your point of view would have remedied that.

My Opinion: As a general rule, I hate HDR. However, you pulled it off well which is especially evident with the glow of the sunrise. This image is nicely captured and well placed in the challenge. Your score reflects that perfectly.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

Dynamic Spider
by alpharich

Comment:
Hey there from the Critique Club

Camera Work/Technical: Its really hard to differentiate yous technical strengths from the weaknesses with this particular HDR image. The center of the image appears in focus, as does the top portion just above center. It looks like the wind, as well as the tremendous amount of post-processing played a large role in losing a good deal of your web detail. I see a lot of softness and pixelation from the various post-processing steps you used.

Lighting: Even with the HDR rendering, the center of the image feels a bit too bright.

Composition/Content: Centered composition works well is many instances. I think that it fits your image well. Unfortunately, this was a free study. Those are always judged especially harshly.

My Opinion: I am not an HDR fan as a general rule. The various effects used and the obvious difficulty obtaining good starting images have definitely detracted from your score's potential. As is, I think this one scored accordingly.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide a critique on your entry,
Eric

The Rails at Dusk
by bcrants

Comment:
Always, always, always use the full size allowances that DPC gives you. 640px is already a ridiculously small size to see on most modern monitors, but this is even more difficult. I like the image, but much of the detail is lost due to the small size.

Securing 165M flyer
by soon

Comment:
No way this misses a ribbon. Amazing composition and perfect for the challenge. This one pulls a 10 from me. Awesome.

[ S MO K E D ]
by ericwoo

Comment:
You haven't made a comment in 4 months, very nice.

Originally posted by essay: "I like the composition and the minimalistic image you have presented here, but the subject matter suffers from commonality here on DPC. There are a lot of dandelions MATCHES & SMOKE on DPC. In fact, I think I've even seen a few with the same type of blown SWIRLING SMOKE technique. Something seems off to me with the lighting. The highlights seem a little too harsh AS I CANNOT REALLY SEE MUCH OF THE DETAILED GRAINS IN THE WOOD AS I WOULD LIKE, AND THE SMOKE CLOUD ON THE RIGHT IS NOT PARTICULARLY APPEALING." ;) Sound vaguely familiar? They say "our sins look especially bad when we see them in someone else." -Seriously, I do like your composition, and congrats on the nice finish. Thanks for taking the time to comment on my entry (thumbnail below), but please realize, there are few original ideas each week on DPC (and I do put THE TWO OF US at the top of the list that are NOT particularly original). When I do mimic something, I TRY to make some element(s) of it unique or at least execute it better than has been done before, as I'd like to think I have done in my entry this week, and as you have in yours. I'm sure I could point to numerous similar examples of each photo of page one that have been entered before. Good luck on future challenges. Stan

Message edited by author 2009-09-23 17:16:49.

Well, there were 9.
by essay

Comment:

Originally posted by essay: When I do mimic something, I TRY to make some element(s) of it unique or at least execute it better than has been done before, as I'd like to think I have done in my entry this week, and as you have in yours. Stan

Well, you didn't. It scored in the top 5 because this is DPC. Your lighting is off and nothing is original. If you can't handle honest critiques on your images, perhaps a public challenge forum isn't for you. Your retaliation was very, very unnecessary.

Message edited by author 2009-09-23 17:17:32.

One life
by TOM32

Comment:
You have definitely captured an interesting subject here, but I think that the depth of field detracts from the overall image. While some have successfully escaped the thought in my mind, I still believe that a challenge titled Nine with nine individual subjects in the image should keep those subjects in crisp focus throughout. Of course that is not a hard, fast rule, rather a thought inside my mind's eye. I think that crisp focus would have helped your image more. As I move my eye through the frame and to the right, it becomes more difficult to look at due to the loss of focus. Sure, the blurring does force my eye to stay on a certain portion of the image, but I'd rather it be free to wander within the constraints of the frame. Interesting image, but I think more focal clarity would have served well to grow your score. From me, a score of 6.