Inspired by... the movies!

A great entry at number two here invoking the visuals of Christopher Nolan movies such as Inception and Interstellar. The composition and black and white grading work very well and the whole image has a great feeling of movement – you look at it and can just feel the guy running and the scene spinning round.

I feel this could have been a potential overall winner with a different approach to the compositing. For me the soft transitions in some areas such as the tops of the buildings in the upper half of the image weakens the effect – I think it could benefit from a bit more time going in and cleaning up all the those edges and making them run together seamlessly where possible.

But I don't want that to detract from what is a very exciting image and worthy of its place in this competition.

Great concept and very funny – this one almost made the top ten! The only thing holding it back is the heavy processing. Some of the highlights have been pulled back too far and you can see them starting to break up a little – for me I think if the information isn't there in the file then let it go to white. The colours also seem to vary quite a bit across the frame as a result of the light from the window and indoors mixing together – in future I'd advise using flash (keeping power setting on manual if you are comping like this) in order to get a consistent colour of light across the image. I hope that is helpful advice for you and well done on a very funny concept!

Great image and think it's clear that you are a very experienced photographer and retoucher. The magic effect and the corresponding lighting on your subject's face combine to make a very convincing effect and I like the cool colour palette and mood of the image. The Harry Potter reference is apparent without being too obvious. For me personally I'm not sure the image works as a square crop and you might want to re-crop as a landscape to see if that improves the composition.

I have no idea what's going on here but that's exactly why I like it! I love the composition and the treatment reminds me of classic horror movies. When you first look at the image you are drawn to the right eye and the subject's intense expression and that's what makes it work so well. The only thing I might be tempted to alter would be the object on the right - it might have worked better with something that isn't the same shape as the object on the left.

This image was the stand out winner in my opinion – what I was looking for in the judging process were photographers you had taken the brief beyond a straightforward interpretation and delivered an image with narrative that demonstrated an understanding of the techniques used by cinematographers to invoke different atmospheres, without obviously referencing one movie in a particularly obvious way.

I love the composition here – your eye naturally falls to the boy in the centre but then there is plenty to explore afterwards without it being too busy. Technically the image is well executed and graded in a way that enhances that feeling of drama.

If I were to offer any advice here the only two things I'd say to improve in future are firstly pay a little more attention to the small details, like bringing the kids a little further forward on the hay bales so we can see all of their feet (a small thing, but missing feet on full lengths is a little jarring) and secondly the processing, though lovely, is a little on the heavy side – try dialing the contrast back a little in future and not letting the blacks go quite so dark. You don't have to go too far, but I think the image would benefit from a little more detail in the shadows.

So to sum up the winner has it all – drama, great technique and mystery!

Great image – very well styled, processed and composed. The only thing that feels slightly amiss is the man's bowler hat – for me it feels a little out of place with the rest of the styling. The image could also have been improved a little by shooting a bit wider so you can see more of the detail in this house. It looks like you have found a good location so it would definitely be worth experimenting with ways to show it off a bit more.

Well done on tackling such a difficult technical challenge and doing a good job. The concept is solid and I think with a few tweaks on the execution you could have a very good image.

The water is a little bit blurred and this I guess is coming from you using speed lights at a high power setting. My advice would be to use studio lights which will have a much shorter flash duration for the same power output and therefore enable you to capture the water frozen in motion better.

I like your concept, the colouring and overall feeling of the image is great – however unfortunately I was not able to give this image an award due to the watermark. In future I would advise to never watermark your images when entering them into competitions. I understand why you have done it in the first place but it really does distract the viewer. Also well done on the good compositing skills here – my only tip would be to go back and adjust the bottom of C3PO's right leg where you can see a slight blue colour cast that doesn't match up with the rest of the image.

A very well executed image – great light, styling, post processing and expression. However, unfortunately I can't give it an award as I don't feel it links strongly enough with the contest's theme. If you could have included some context then I think this would have helped you communicate your intentions better – perhaps shooting the image in the loft with the model looking into the painting or mirror with a little detail in order to get across the Dorian Gray element.

Great work taking advantage of strong sunlight rather than shying away from it. The composition and treatment works well – I feel it justifies being in black and white. One way you could improve the image would be to bring a little bit of detail back into the bat's face by bumping the exposure up in that area using a RAW developer such as lightroom. Use the local adjustments brush and very subtly bring out some of the detail in the face. That will help the viewer work out what is going on in the picture quicker.

A good image that certainly makes me want to go to Osaska and soak up the atmosphere. You've processed the image well and have been restrained when it comes to the use of HDR (always a good thing!). I can see the connection to Blade Runner and the composition works well using the blue tower as a centrepoint to the image. Some parts of the image seem a little lacking in detail and in future you might want to try subtly (that being the operative word!) blending a few exposures to bring a small amount of shadow detail into the dark parts of the image