Well, give this one a once over with the new criteria.

Tony,

What a great shot. I don't really think I am qualified to comment on your shots, but I will give you my thoughts for what they are worth.

Composition/use of frame space
Nice composition - good use of thirds. My eye wants to travel between the foreground flowers and the mountains in the distance - very appropriately. My only criticism is that I wish the pedals on the top and the bottom flowers were not cut off.

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter
DOF is great for this shot. The mountains are reasonably in focus; as are the close flowers.

Perspective / Creativity

I like the low shot perspective - it is a nice way to show the field of flowers without just being a mass of yellow.

Emotion
Forethought/Visualization
Post processing

I am not sure what it is, but I would like to see slightly more brilliance, or contrast of the yellow in the flowers. It might just be my monitor, but my initial reaction when I saw this was the flowers were more "muted" than I would like to see. Unfortunately I do not know what to do in PS to bring this out...

I hope my thoughts are helpful.

Again - what a great way to photograph this scene.

Dave

thanks dave, those are very helpful. I always have a heck of time with colors, still get awesome colors in lightroom, but then they look poor in PS. I dont really know how to fix that. . . anyone know why my colors look great in lightroom but then lose their snap when viewed in PS?

Composition/use of frame space = 4.5
Only reason it doesn’t get a 5 is because I don’t hand out 5’s like water…LOL. Good diagonal across the frame…nice empty space to balance out the foreground object…even the clouds help balance this all out.

Colors/White Balance = 4.5
A little Midtone contrast adjustment and a slight LAB tweak could open it up a tad…but pretty darned good.

Exposure = 5
Ya pretty much nailed it….good detail in the shadows…nothing is blown in the highlights…reasonably crisp across the board.

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter = 5
Again…you got this one nailed…crisp from front to back.

Perspective = 5
Great use of space to create an illusion of depth in a 2D space…foreground object to anchor the viewer…good sprawl to the mountains in the background. Well done.

Creativity = 4.5
Another place dear to my heart…don’t give out 5’s often here either. …but very creative and unique.

Emotion – 4.5
Definitely makes me want to visit and see it first hand.

Forethought/Visualization = 4
Looks like you really weighed out the scene before setting up….only niggle is the flower cut off in the frame at top and bottom.

Post processing = 4
Just needs to be tightened up a little in the mid contrast and LAB to give it some crispness.

Total = 40 out of a possible 45 = Awesome!!!

Roman

Hey Tony,

This is just beautiful. I have rated it as follows:

Composition/use of frame space = 4

I would have gone with a 5 because I think the framing is really excellent. My only two gripes are that I feel that some of the sunflowers look 'tired' that are prominantly featured in the image. Also, the top flower is chopped off at the top - though the over-all composition does not suffer.

Colors/White Balance = 4 - 5
Really great colors. I wish that they could be just slightly pumped up to pull out those beautiful rich yellows - though honestly, it is a quibble.

Exposure = 5
Just beautiful. It looks perfect.

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter = 5
Perfect.

Perspective = 5
Great job bringing the whole image together in the space given. It really compresses into something rather beautiful.

Creativity = 5
The composition, missing any one of the elements would probably make a nice image. Putting them together in the way that it is done was masterful.

Emotion – 5
This image calls to me in a way that I find is unique for many landscapes. It was very cleverly done.

Forethought/Visualization = 4 - 5
The frame is so nicely put together that it is hard to believe that there was not a lot of thought about the image prior to putting on to media. Again, I wish that some of the sunflowers on the top center of the frame and top right were not missing so many petals - but that could add to the 'real sense' of the piece as well.

Post processing - 4
I was going to take a pass on this. I think that it looks just a slight bit muted on my monitor...however, I realize that there are differences in calibration that may make this a perfect 5.