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Blessing Buddha
Blessing Buddha
hajeka


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Religion (Advanced Editing V*)
Collection: 2007
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Location: At home
Date: May 28, 2007
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.6 s
Galleries: Still Life, Studio
Date Uploaded: May 27, 2007

As I'm told, this is a statue of a blessing buddha. Added the incense for some more dimension.

Whitebalanced and played a little with other raw settings, cropped, converted from raw, resized and sharpened.

(Just another try in my home build light box).

Statistics
Place: 224 out of 311
Avg (all users): 4.9563
Avg (commenters): 8.0000
Avg (participants): 4.8308
Avg (non-participants): 5.0254
Views since voting: 983
Views during voting: 238
Votes: 183
Comments: 3
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
06/07/2007 06:25:01 PM
It is frustrating to get so few comments with the voting. For what my opinion is worth (my interests and style are not always in synch with most on this site ) , the Buddah is dark and it is against a dark background. The site has alot of people that really do some exceptional studio/staged shots, by comparison this is quite ordinary. Maybe a little water in front to get a reflection or some placement of additional highlights would have yeilded a more dramatic shot. I personally am not a studio type photographer but, if you check out alot of the challenges have examples of people who really put alot of effort into that kind of thing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
06/07/2007 06:13:41 PM
Positives:
Post processing is the main strength of this image. The incense is a nice addition.

Technicals:
Basically the sharpness, background and those types of things are all OK.

Perspective and composition, however, are on the weak side. Lighting choice does not add a lot of viewer interest to the composition though there is nothing really wrong with it either. The depth of field makes the near foreground part of the incense out-of-focus

The Challenge:
You got 4.9 but that is only about .3 below the challenge average. It probably would hve scored lower if it were not for its technical merit.

It is doubtful voters had a problem with your religious choice, but pictures of stationary art objects typically score low at DPC. Your idea to add more interest by including the incense is a good one, it just needs more viewer interest.

Suggestions:
As far as it goes there really is not much "wrong" with your picture. But there are some things you might try to increase viewer interest.

One thought would be to change from the snapshot perspective. Try a dramatic angle either high or low. Be creative. Another change would be to give it angled and more dramatic lighting as well. Both would add lots of viewer interest.

Instead of having one incense stick, maybe have two or three and maybe add some breeze to show the smoke curling up better during the timed exposure. Directing strong lighting to the smoke rising would help.

Once I photographed a coffee pot with steaming coffee coming out and took over 70 exposures. I had to boil the coffee in a pan and pour it into the pot every two or three shots before the steam disappeared and I had to do it over again. I did that until I got a smoke curl that worked. That effort earned a yellow ribbon. Consider that for yours.

Lastly, you shot at f/6.3 which left the closer part of the incense stick out-of-focus. Consider a higher f/number for greater depth of field if that is practical. It will make the exposure a lot longer which might screw up the smoke curls so you'd have to work with it to find the right combination. Don't discount the possibility of simply letting the incense burn down enough that you could set them more upright.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
05/30/2007 08:43:24 AM
The incence makes it stand out from the other numerous buddha shots, and the composition works very well. I think this is the first Buddha I've come across in the challenge that I actually like.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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