Personaaly what sets an entry over the top is "THE WOW" factor for me.....

I say you stfu and chop:.

Voting is so skewed here.
I've had in my mind masterpieces and only get a measley 20-30 votes. Then Ive had others were ive spent 10-15 mins on and have won or ranked top 3.

It just depends on the mood,originality, humor, photosurealism, and cleverness of the post at the time of entry.
Advantage definetly helps, because it gets ur image in the face of the voting public early.
And don't forget that there is some freakin intense/awesome choppers here. Comps stiff at times.
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bx, you are right.
I am STFU'ing as we speak.

Today's Deep Thought brought to you by Micose.

Sorry everyone, I was at the Florida Gator game while this was posted last night.

Vokari's,
I think your hmpty dmpty entry was really creative and nicely executed. I not sure if our entries were "almost identical" but I do believe we had the same theme in mind.

Take a look at these entries I found in just a couple minutes:

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/96202/soul-long-see-ya.html

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/96527/humpty-dumpty.html

http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/70848/votes.html

Like Eve said, you'll find that ideas have been used several times here. You should definitely try to become an advantage member, it's good for the site and it makes the PSC experience more enjoyable!

Steve, again, congratulations on your win!

This was not intended as any sort of complaint against your work, or pitching for any of mine (and I certainly cannot claim any intellectual property rights on the Humpty Dumpty idea and/or using the Mesa, AZ statue as source).

Since I was trying to get recommendations for improvement, this is what I understand so far:
- advantage, advantage, advantage
- composition, depth of field, lighting
- mood, originality, humor, photosurrealism and cleverness of the post at the time of entry.

Thank you, everyone! I'll be STFU'ing again now.

Yeah what you said.