Kristina And Cody 22.5 HM BPP Linda Pickrell Pictorial Bronze
J1 subjects are both sharp and have good eye contact with the viewer. personally, I would prefer if the image were rotated 90 dg as I feel a need to look at them in a vertical format, not horizontal. just my personal bias. J2 Good image. Perhaps the maker should brighten the eyes a little. Canon Canon EOS 60D EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM 1/250 sec F2.8 400
A Snowy Portrait 1 22 Jim Swire Pictorial Gold
J2 Good portrait pose. Good feather detail but the whites are blown out on the neck and the top of the head. Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM 1/80 sec F8.0 200
Barn Owl 22.5 Geoff Dunn Pictorial Gold
J2 Good feather detail but the flash has caused the pupils to go to an impenetrable black except for the flash dot. Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM 1/400 sec F5.6 800
Catbird 20 Kathryn Martin Nature Gold
J2 Sharp. would have scored better with the bird in front of the bush. SONY ILCE-9 FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS + 1.4X Teleconverter 1/1250 sec F8.0 2000
Salvia Rutilans 22 Victor Turczynski Nature Gold
J1 nice composition - white flowers need to be sharper throughout J2 Nice composition but the lighting was too strong and it has burned out the whites, especially in the rear flower Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM 1/160 sec F16.0 100
Night Shopping 19 Arthur Laver Pictorial Silver
J2 Due to the overall bright lights it takes some time to relate the image to the title. An extremely difficult image to take successfully in one shot. Suggest the maker should have taken multiple shots at different exposures and then combined them in an HDR in order to bring out the details. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 7 NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S 1/320 sec F5.6 20000
Golden Buddja 19.5 Arthur Laver Pictorial Silver
J2 Good and sharp Well exposed. Would be good in a travel AV Show. As a competition image there are some major distractions, especially the Audio Guide signs at the bottom and the bright sky. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 7 NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S 1/125 sec F6.3 100
Lady Going To Market 21 Arthur Laver Pictorial Silver
J2 Tells a good story but it is significantly over exposed and some of which could have been minimized by finding the white spot and then using the highlight slider and if necessary the exposure slider to reduce the very hot areas. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON Z 7 NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S 1/400 sec F10.0 1600
Osprey With Fish 22.5 David Evans Nature Gold
J1 too bad entire osprey was not in the shot J2 Good nature story but an image with all of the wings would have scored higher Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II EF400mm f/5.6L USM 1/2000 sec F5.6 1250
Winter Delight 22.5 Victor Turczynski Creative Gold
J1 This is a nice attempt at a creative image, but it leaves the viewer wondering what to focus on. Maybe leaving something of interest in the image would help FUJIFILM X-T2 XF55-200mmF3.5-4.8 R LM OIS 1/640 sec F4.0 500
Red Beaked Ox Peckers On Buffalo 21.5 John Chapman Nature Gold
J1 unfortunate that the ox's eye area is soft. could have scored higher. J2 Good nature story but the subject is too central and the image is very shallow from top to bottom. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D850 150.0-500.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 1/400 sec F6.3 200
Lara And Keith 24 DP John Overmeyer Pictorial Master
J2 Interesting idea. Really like the bottom two thirds of the image. That is very well executed. However, the light in the trees at the back, even though it presumably represent a heart, is very distracting. Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/200 sec F5.0 1250
Canary Springs 21.5 Kathy Leisti Pictorial Gold
J2 Although the intent seems to have been to put the water course in context, the trees in the left foreground are much too dominant NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D600 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 1/200 sec F14.0 640
Stage Lighting 101 20 Ezbieta Piskorz Pictorial Gold
J1 very busy image with the 2 background people in the image. the starburst attracts the eye and should be toned down considerably. I realize it is there for the "creative Lighting" , but is very distracting. If the face on the poster could be toned down, this would help ,a great deal. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D610 50.0 mm f/1.4 1/60 sec F2.0 100
Black And White 23 GPP Ezbieta Piskorz Pictorial Gold
J2 Nice idea. However, the glare lines on the the two pencils are unfortunate. The noise in the white side of the image should be eradicated. The white has to be a clean white with no blemishes in order to make this image work. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D610 105.0 mm f/2.8 1/125 sec F16.0 100
Garden Delight Pictorial Gold
J2 Not sharp anywhere except the edges of the green and the yellow leaf in the background Canon Canon EOS REBEL T5i EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS 1/80 sec F5.6 500
Winter View From My Back Window 18.5 James Hamilton Pictorial Gold
J2 Good composition bt there is horizontal banding and colour noise which is very evident in the snow. J3 While a nice winter vignette, the textured pattern is very distracting. The image is also soft and we're losing details in the foliage. The bench is also tight to the left and the way it's facing is leading the eye out of the frame.
Winter Northern Cardinal 23 GPP Brian Floyd Nature Gold
J1 Beautiful - too bad tail feathers are not in focus. J2 Well exposed. Good feather detail. Well handle background with a good diagonal perch. The inclusion of a sharp tail would have garnered more marks. OLYMPUS CORPORATION E-M1MarkII OLYMPUS M.300mm F4.0 1/1600 sec F4.0 400
Horse 21.5 Leonie Holmes Creative Gold
J1 this is a lovely image of a horse with clear details. Either a filter which provides backlight and highlights has been added, or it is superimposed onto another image.Use a softer brush for background blurring and watch the areas (muzzle) which also become blurred. Score higher in Pictorial NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D800 1/100 sec F5.0 125
Trumpeter Swan 21 Leonie Holmes Pictorial Gold
J1 NOT a trumpeter swan. this is an egret! J2 Not all birds with black beaks are Trumpeter Swans! As an image is over exposed and the whites on the top of the head and the shoulder are blown out. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D90 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 1/800 sec F5.0 280
Trinity College Library 22.5 SPP Jim Sykes Pictorial Silver
J2 Well seen image. Although this has a good perspective I am not sure that the lack of focus in the progression of heads was the way to go especially as the books on the left are so sharp. I also found the green rope took my eye to the unsharp area on the right. Perhaps change the colour. Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark IV EF24-105mm f/4L IS II USM 1/100 sec F5.6 5000
Junkhouse 23 SPP Jim Sykes Pictorial Silver
J2 good indoor concert image. The lights are the brightest part of the image and ones eyes go there first. Perhaps a crop of the top and one from the left should move the interest back to the musicians. Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark IV EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM 1/100 sec F18.0 12800
Horned Grebe 25 DP Gary Love Nature Master
J2 Well exposed and sharp image. Like the movement. Perhaps the saturation of the reds has been pushed a little too far. Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM +2x III 1/2000 sec F8.0 400
Blue Jay 20.5 Art Ward Nature Gold
J2 Well exposed. Good colours. Very central and vertical. Assume this was a crop and as such maybe a rotation would have helped compositionally. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D3 70.0-200.0 mm f/2.8 1/250 sec F10.0 250
Purity 24 HM GPP Bertin Francoeur Pictorial Gold
J2 Good image. The rose is very well exposed and is very sharp. Perhaps the maker should slightly brighten the stem and the leaves. Needs a white 1 or 2 pixel line around the image. SONY ILCE-7RM3 FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS 30 sec F22.0 100
Golden Olive Woodpecker 22.5 David Seldon Nature Master
J2 Good capture. Unfortunately the plane of focus drops off diagonally, half way up the back and through the head behind the eye.Likewise the feet are out of focus. Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II EF500mm f/4L IS USM 1/100 sec F4.5 1000
Ice On The Athabasca 23 John Overmeyer Pictorial Master
J2 A nice image that could be improved with a crop from the bottom up to where the ice meets the river on the left edge. This would eliminate the whitish area in the bottom right corner and tighten up the image overall. Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/30 sec F22.0 800
Oh! That'S A Good Hand. 23 GPP Bertin Francoeur Pictorial Gold
J2 Good story. the lighting on the man and his hands is very good. The maker needs to revisit the work they did on the background and rework the out of focus objects to make them less visible. FUJIFILM X-T2 XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR 1/110 sec F5.6 200
Chicory-6 21.5 Ed Espin Nature Gold
J2 Well exposed given the light source direction. The stem on the right is too tight to the edge. Other than that a pleasing composition and the background is handled well.
Symmetrical Paths 23 GPP Ed Espin Creative Gold
J2 Good design. The maker should have a try at cloning the background into the triangles in each corner. J3 This image works well as a graphic abstract with the stark contrast and the repeating patterns.
Suggest to make the background even darker to reduce the noise/texture and to remove the black triangles from each corner which do not add anything to the image.
Male Northern Cardinal 22.5 SPP Geoffrey Skirrow Pictorial Silver
J2 The bird is well exposed and the colour is good. The feather detail is good. However, the bird is clearly on a feeder together with a mound of seeds. I have judged the image as though it was a nature image but in the circumstances it probably should be in Pictorial. Canon Canon EOS 7D Mark II 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015 1/2000 sec F6.3 320
Dinner! 20 Bill West Pictorial Silver
J2 Good attempt but it lacks depth of field. The focus drops off just behind the first three claws on each front foot. As it was taken a crop tight into the left of the reptile would have removed the distraction from the out of focus back leg and the tail. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D850 105.0 mm f/2.8 1/1250 sec F9.0 640
Power Hitter Pictorial Gold
J2 Good attempt at an action shot but unfortunately the only thing that is sharp is the fence OLYMPUS CORPORATION E-M1MarkII OLYMPUS M.300mm F4.0 1/2000 sec F8.0 800
Red-Bellied Woodpecker 22.5 Kathy Ward Pictorial Gold
J2 Nice composition but the image is very flat and needs some clarity and possibly an S curve to make it more punchy. J3 The main subject is well positioned in the frame and contrasts well with the background. The food in the beak adds to the nature story. While the eye is nice and sharp, we're lacking feather detail in the head and part of the chest. Some selective sharpening would really add that extra punch. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D750 300.0 mm f/4.0 1/200 sec F7.1 280
Short-Eared Owl 20 Pat Wintemute Nature Gold
J1 crop in tighter and sharpen bird feathers J2 Too small in the frame. A tighter crop would have scored much higher. Canon Canon EOS 70D 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015 1/1600 sec F7.1 320
Snowy Owl And Northern Harrier 22 Pat Wintemute Nature Gold
J1 crop in tighter. too much dead space which is an uninteresting sky J2 Good exposure given the two different colours of the birds. Would suggest a tighter crop as they are both quite small in the image as shown. Canon Canon EOS 70D 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015 1/1250 sec F6.3 400
Great Blue Heron Strutting 24 HM GPP Brian Floyd Nature Gold
J2 Well exposed. Good action shot. Great feather detail. The same composition 10 feet further right thus eliminating the dark brown patch on the top left would have scored higher. Ponds with feathers etc. on the surface are always a problem. OLYMPUS CORPORATION E-M1MarkII OLYMPUS M.300mm F4.0 1/400 sec F4.0 320
Black-Capped Chickadee 23 GPP Brian Floyd Nature Gold
J2 Good composition. Suggest the maker try to shoot birds using natural light and if necessary only use a very light flash to generate a catchlight in the eye. OLYMPUS CORPORATION E-M1MarkII OLYMPUS M.300mm F4.0 1/1250 sec F4.0 200
Yellow Tulip 24 HM SPP Janet McNally Pictorial Silver
J2 Well exposed but lost marks due to the lack of sharpness in the bottom of the stem and leaf. This is a still life image and the maker had the opportunity to make it perfect. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7100 105.0 mm f/2.8 1/2 sec F8.0 100
Pink Tulip 24 HM SPP Janet McNally Pictorial Silver
J2 Nice sharp image. Compositionally it is too central and too vertical. The flower and stem are very flat and need some light in from the lower right to give a more dynamic presentation NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7100 105.0 mm f/2.8 1/2 sec F11.0 200
Cumulonimbus Clouds 20.5 Ewa Rakowski Nature Silver
J1 sensor dust spots top right to centre. J2 The foreground needs to be lightened. The maker needs to inspect their images for dust spots - two in the top part of the cloud and one in the sky towards the left edge. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7100 1/640 sec F10.0 100
Fuzzy Buds 21.5 Claudia Povilauskas Pictorial Silver
J2 the buds are well exposed except for the top right. The heavy shadow from the top bud on the one behind it and on the fourth one one the one below that could have been avoided. Canon Canon EOS 6D Mark II EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM 1/8 sec F11.0 100
Blue Phlox 20.5 Heather Engel Nature Master
J2 Good colours of the flower and the buds. However the focus is too far into the image and the "front" flowers and buds are not sharp NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D300S 1/80 sec F8.0 400
Wood Anemone 18 Heather Engel Nature Master
J2 This is a fairly good composition. However the image has a huge amount of noise, especially in the background. It is also evident on the flower which in itself is not sharp enough for a botany image NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D300S 1/10 sec F18.0 200
Eclipse Sequence And Stars 24.5 DP Dan Copeland Pictorial Master
J2 A good idea however, in pictorial this does not have to reflect reality. Remove the white dots to gain a better score. The maker should look at the different levels of black in the sky and where they have added canvas at the top and bottom of the image and at the blacks in the separate moons. OLYMPUS CORPORATION E-M10MarkII 9999/1000000 sec F36.0 1000
Male Long-Tailed Duck 22 Jim Maguire Nature Gold
J2 Although the duck is relatively sharp it is very central in the image. The whites are blown out producing little feather detail. NIKON D7500 TAMRON SP AF 150-600mm F5-6.3 VC USD A011N 1/2500 sec F7.1 640
Male Bufflehead 19 Jim Maguire Nature Gold
J1 strange selection on face area which leaves that section blurred.no detail in black feathers J2 Good image with movement. However, there is a sort of filter over the head from above the eye to the left and down the neck to the breast of the Bufflehead. This dimmed the colours and produced a definite line going up the neck which has separated bright vibrant colours from ones which are dull. NIKON D7000 150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 1/1600 sec F8.0 400
Grey Beard 19.5 Serge Priffer Pictorial Silver
J2 Good subject but too many distractions. There is a lot of noise in the background and a halo around the main subject. His beard is very crunchy. This all points to significant over sharpening. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D700 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 1/2000 sec F5.6 400
American Goldfinch 19 John Lamont Nature Silver
J2 Good composition. There is very little feather detail and the yellow looks to have been painted. The background has a lot of noise. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7100 80.0-400.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 1/250 sec F8.0 400
Oriole Feeding Her Chick 19.5 John Lamont Nature Silver
J1 take down the saturation and sharpen image J2 Good story. Over exposed by at least 1.5 stops due to a too strong flash.A lot of colour and luminance noise in the background and no feather detail in either bird. NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D7100 80.0-400.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 1/2000 sec F8.0 400
Halstatt Austria 21 Graham Jardine Pictorial Gold
J3 A pleasant landscape image that has some room for improvement. The maker has capture an interesting scene, but is a bit contrasty. Open up the shadows for some detail. Crop a third of the water below. Some noise reduction would help smooth out the sky as well. Canon Canon PowerShot G9 1/125 sec F8.0 100
