Cinematic

I had so intended that my top 10 would only consist of images that had a cinematic crop - or at least a wider landscape. But this is such a stunning shot, with perfect light and mood. It makes me completely fall into the world she occupies. Now if it had been in a cinematic crop it would almost certainly have been a very strong contender for my top placement.

I love this photo so much! A couple sitting on a blanket, kissing in front of a vintage car headlights - instant romance, heightened by the light in the sky and silhouettes of the trees, making us realise it must be the blue hour, even though the image is in monotone. And while we cannot see their faces, we can just make out enough from their hands that this is not a young, teenage couple, which adds to the depth of the narrative. For my personal taste, I think a real black and white, rather than the sepia tint would have worked better. And, of course, a more cinematic crop

This photo is about as cinematic as you can get. The dramatic lighting, the mood, the narrative, the treatment, the crop ratio - all lead us into feeling we are watching a movie. At the same time it is a beautifully composed photo, with the triangular shape of the subject, extended out by his hand, the objects on the desk, and the shadows coming from the overhead light. A worthy winner - congratulations!

A truly dramatic, cinematic image. The widescreen crop gives us this sense of watching the action unfold before us as though on a movie screen. The backlight coming through the smoke and dust dramatically increases the atmosphere, while the bright red of the fire engines parked under the collapsed building leave us in no doubt of the scale of the devastation. The sense of tragedy makes us wish it was a movie set, rather than a live scene.

I have to confess I wasn't sure about this photo when I first saw it, but each time I did another sweep through all the photos, it moved up through the levels. Photographed at a distance - zooming in through the heat haze - gives the silhouetted outlines a very different look than our usual attempts to get pin-sharp images. And then the high contrast black and white, creates an extra layer of abstraction and sense we observing something slightly removed from reality. As such, our attention lingers

Although it is not a cinematic crop ratio, this photo certainly has all the elements of a still from a movie. As we observe the boxer with his attention focused on something outwith our view, we get a powerful sense of a story leading up to this point, and a story to come afterwards. The use of black and white allows the viewer to be drawn directly to the person without colourful distractions in the background. Great shot and post-processing!

I love the split-screen effect of the composition, with the subject on the train on one side and the rail tracks and trees on the other - it adds to the sense of the young woman bordering 2 worlds - lost in thoughts in her own head, rather than interacting with the real world around her. Great shot that only very narrowly missed my top 10