Thank god for the digital darkroom!

"Mailbox" photo - 3.5 for aesthetics.

The first edited version - 5 for aesthetics.

"Mountain sheep" photo - 3.75 for aesthetics.

Edited version - 4.86.

Gussie photo - 3.62.

Edited version - 4.80.

For Mailbox, 3.5 is not a good rating. 5 is. All I even did was take out the

snow in the corner of the frame, and in retrospect I didn't even do it well.

Yet, a five out of seven for aesthetics. Big difference for a white lump!

Not that I'm not glad. I like adding a full point and a half to the aesthetics

score of my photos with five minutes of time with the GIMP. It's fun to do,

too. But really, how does the removal of snow make such a big difference?

Actually, I think the edit with the biggest impact was the mountain sheep one.

That one, however, got a less dramatic upwards shift in score. My third mailbox

edit, which removed the seam where I removed the snow and got rid of the lock

and doorbell got a score only slightly higher than the original.

So while I'm glad for digital editing, what do you suppose makes the difference

in people's minds?

Kieran-- Don't take the ratings to be anything more than a RANDOM sampling. I have

posted one of my photos at several different times and received drastically different

ratings each time. It

depends who happened along at the time. You're not being rated by the same people each

time, so you shouldn't assume that removing the snow has anything to do with the higher

ratings, it may just be coincidence. One of your mailbox photos was rated by 5 or 6 people

and the other by

11 people. That is a VERY small sampling from which to make ANY conclusions. My

suggestion would be to make

more comments on photos and portfolios of folks whose photos you like and respect and

hope that they will give you helpful comments on your own work. Someone did suggest

you remove the snow. Interesting comment and it probably did some help to that photo.

But the snow is a very minor and relatively unimportant part of that photo. It's more about

the subject and composition. I'd be much more curious to hear about what you were after,

what you found compelling about the subject matter and composition, and what you are

hoping to do with your photography. Then I might make some helpful comments.

Assuming that removing a mound of snow from that photograph makes any meaningful

contribution to its overall impact and aesthetics, in my mind, would be very misguided.