Black and White (Young APOY)

What a great picture! The tonal range is exquisite, with the silhouetted figures and tree in the foreground a deep black, the next line of tress a mid grey and, further back, a tree line of light grey. The figures are perfectly positioned in the frame and the shot is perfectly timed. Badly timed silhouettes can look a confusing mess without the third dimension to help explain what you're looking at, but here the limbs of the figures and even the legs of the cow are perfectly separated to aid immediate recognition. It's hard to see how this shot could be improved in any way. –Nigel Atherton, Editor

A lovely study in minimalism. The mirror-perfect water cries out to be photographed, and placing the leaf centrally towards the bottom of the frame takes the eye straight to it. The upside down trees in the reflection add a sense of surrealism to the whole. A very nice range of tones, too.

Self-portraiture is a very tricky genre to get right, and Lucy has approached it in exactly the right way, keeping things as simple as possible. Looking straight to camera is definitely the best approach, and increasing the contrast emphasises the delicacy of her hands. Very nicely done.

There's a fabulous energy to this shot that can't help but make the viewer smile. The boy's excitement as the water crashes around him is infections, and the movement of the wave contrasts beautifully with his stillness.

Although this reference will be far too old for entrants to Young APOY, this image looks as if it comes straight from a cover of The Face magazine back in the 1980s. There's an edge and a tension to it that really captures the imagination. A perfect choice of aperture, too, which focuses attention on the boy's eye and lets everything else go just soft enough.

What an excellent study in minimalism. It takes a confident photographer to leave this much space around the main subject, so Josh's style and approach is very impressive indeed. Despite the lack of information, we know exactly what is going on, and the picture tells a lovely story of a person and their dogs.