Initial thoughts Good color, meets the challenge, lighting seems a bit off
Composition/ Content
I looked at this shot a long time when I was voting. I really like the colors but there are a few problems with the shot that kept it from scoring higher. The most flagrant is the leaning of the checkerboard to the right. Either set it up straight or rotate and crop it in PhotoShop. Or you could have angled it more so that it doesn't look like a mistake.
Background One of the things that made me look at this was the felt background. I was wondering where the casino background entered in. Was it a real casino? These were things I asked myself. BTW, if the board was straight the stars would be symetrical as well.
Camera Work - Technical Focus is just a touch soft but more of that in Processing. The biggest problem here is that it appears that you either used the on-camera flash or your lights were not strong enough to light the shot evenly. The back of your photo grows darker andt the front is much brighter which screams "snapshot". A couple of desklamps or clamp ons would help this a lot.
Digital Processing - Technical I noticed that you only used a little over 90 kb of the 150 kb file size allowed by the rules. The increase would really sharpen the shot (as would increased light) You have a good camera, use all of the file size you can. I think a dark border would have added to the "squareness" and color of this shot as well.
Fits The Challenge Definitely fits the challenge well.
My Opinion On The Photo I originally scored this shot a five as did most of the voters. I think that it meets the challenge well but could have been improved a little to finish even higher than it did. Good job, and keep up the good work.
I would be happy to talk further about this shot if you would like to contact me.
DougPaz
A good crisp shot with bright eye catching colors. A hair more elbow room around the board would be a bonus. Fits the challenge well. I would also like to see a blurry ghost hand move a marker to break up the static quality of the image ( just a personal whim ). A good straight forward shot.
Composition: Good, but needs rotating slightly ccw? Would have looked better symmetric I think.
Technical: A little more lighting at the top/back of the photo may have made a stronger impact.
Meets challenge: Yes
Overall impression: Could have been excellent, but lacked sheen. 6
One of the best photographic rules I've learned is that, every time you're tempted to use the camera's built-in flash, you have to pinch youself somewhere painful as hard as you can for as long as you can stand it. Pretty soon, you stop being tempted. Nothing screams 'snapshot' so shrilly as the combination of overexposed highlights and background falloff produced by these (damned) things. They're okay for taking a picture of the product of a fender-bender, but if you want to make a pleasing image you're much better off using a tripod (or even just bracing against something and taking a deep breath, releasing the shutter while exhaling) and natural light.
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