Not sure what a Fractal Art is or what Fractal Art is not then feel free to read the following article [link]

There are a lot of different things that you should think about before critiquing a fractal (or any other piece of artwork for that matter) first there is Critiquing Fractals The Artistic Side by [link]

And then there is Critiquing Fractals the Technical Side

I'm going to try and define some of the more technical terms about fractal artwork and also things that deal with rendering in Apophysis and Ultra-Fractal. I have a lot more experience with Apophysis than I do with Ultra-Fractal but I will do my best and have asked questions of some of the better and more experience Ultra-Fractal artists that I know.

Okay off to the definitions and what they mean in terms of a fractal so that you know what terms to use when you are critiquing a fractal in technical terms. There is also further informatino for you (as a fractal artist) to use to help improve your art.

Blur is when a fractal looks like its muddy or being viewed through the wrong pair of eyeglasses. This can really take away from a fractal. In Apophysis this can be fixed by changing gamma or brightness before rendering or changing the same settings during Post Process in
Apophysis. However these same settings can cause the problem so change your numbers in the settings carefully and do test renders to see if your changes where successful.

Here is a fractal with too much blur

Hot Spots/Dark Spots are when a fractal has areas that are too bright or too dark and don't fit in with the rest of the fractal. There are several ways to deal with this in both Apophysis and Ultra-Fractal the easiest is to make a slight gradient change. You can also change gamma and brightness or make adjustments to your variations/layers.

Here is a fractal with too much blur and hot spots/dark spots

Noise is when a fractal has a bunch of small bits all over that don't belong. This can usually be fixed by upping the quality of a render or by removing/adjusting variations/layers.

Here is a fractal with too much noise

Resolution is not just the dimensions of a fractal but also the pixel count. These are both important especially in rendering for prints. And also in the decision of whether to render a fractal horizontally or vertically. Another issue with resolution is what screen size are people viewing your fractal on. I have asked my watchers in polls what their typical screen resolution is so that they can view my fractal art without having to make adjustments on both sides of the viewing screen.

Here is a fractal rendered for Vertical Presentation


Here is a fractal rendered for Horizontal Presentation
with severe hot spots

Pixelation is when an image doesn't have antialiasing (this make the edges of things smooth) this tends to only happen when you render and image as a BMP the easy way to solve this is to render images either as a JPG or PNG.

Here is a fractal with pixelation

Graininess is when an image has visible grains in it (when it should be smooth). This is usually caused by rendering at a low quality, very small filter radius, or a low pixel resolution (for example 72 dpi instead of 300 dpi).

Here is a fractal with graininess

Render dimensions are the size an artist decides to render at. This is important for the amount of time the render will take (the bigger the image the longer the render time) and also when rendering for prints. When you render for a print you want the image at the best quality and the largest possible size the reasons for this are you can then downsize the fractal to the size you need (which will increase the quality) and it will allow you to offer the larger print sizes (which make you more money) for more information on images sizes and quality needed for prints check out the following dA FAQ's (also only JPG's are accepted for prints):

dA FAQ # 132 Image Size for Prints [link]
dA FAQ # 576 Print Templates [link]
da FAQ # 128 Why you have to render at the right size [link]

Render perspective includes all of the following; rotation of render, changing the center of the render, rendering a different part of the fractal, horizontal or vertical render. This is where you as a viewer of the fractal can say I like this but what if? or you know I really like the section on the upper right could you render that? this is where you as the viewer of the art piece can pick the part, place, or rotation that you think you would like to see.

Render settings and what they do.

Apophysis

Quality (the higher the number the better the render and the longer it takes)
Filter Radius (smaller numbers tend to make the render more grainy higher numbers make the render more smooth)
Oversample (the higher the number the better the render and the more memory it uses)


UltraFractal

Resolution (this affects the smoothness of the image this can be critical for renders that you want to print)
Anti-aliasing (this smooths out the rough edges)
Options (select Force Linear Drawing)

Recommendation from other fractal artists:

*I always begin with these C's when first viewing an image: Color, Composition, Clarity"

"In Ultra-Fractal, when rendering, you should always use force linear-drawing method to make smoother images and that's what I do"

The following is a list of simple questions that I ask when critiquing a Fractal Image.

Don't forget to read Critiquing Fractals The Artistic Side by [link]

First study the fractal masters that are here on DeviantArt (these are just some of the fractal masters here).

Second look at the entire fractal piece, what emotions does it convey to you? what do you think the artist was trying to say? does the work convey what it was meant too? Does the title fit the piece of fractal art?

Third look at the following things; shading, composition, light, and color.

Fourth if the work doesn't convey what it was meant to then answer the question why? does it have a flaw that if changed would make it better? if so what is this flaw(s) and how would you fix it(them)? is the composition off, if so why is it off? does the piece of fractal art not evoke the proper mood because of the colors? if so what colors do you think the artist should have used?

Fifth if the fractal art piece succeeded in evoking its message what could have been done better either in composition or in technical terms? What would you want the artist to do to fix these parts or what would you do to fix them. This is where an experienced fractal artist might recommend a different gradient, the use of a different variation, or the removal, or addition of variations/layers.

Finally you need to convey to the artist all of your answers to the questions in a nicely worded comment to let them know what you liked and what you didn't like and how you think the things you didn't like could be done better.

I hope that this article helps you to better critique art in general and too know some of the more technical terms when it comes to fractal art.