Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by Nuzzer:
Greetings from the Critique Club.

First impressions are that the background is blown out.

Technically the blown out background is a killer. You should always try to level horizons in shots as a tilt like this makes the viewer feel that the whole shot is wonky. In some cases a tilt is ok but when it comes to natural horizons it's almost always best to level them. Composition is good. There is some noise in the water but at ISO 100 this is probably from the processing - levels or sharpening?

Artistically there isn't much to this. The pose is staged and that comes across.

In summary this is an ok shot but sometimes if you feel unhappy with your shot for a number of reasons then it's often going to score low. Voters will find things to vote a shot down for if they can so if you see things you don't like then so will they. Good luck in future challenges.

Feel free to PM me if you have any queries.
Gerry

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by Crafty:
I think the background lets you down here, good luck

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by Pj:
this person looks like she is guiding in airplanes. ???

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by justine:
Bit too blown out to really get the 'whole' image. Her pose is cute.

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by JokersSoul:
Oh if I could only be on that beach! I can picture the soft movements of her dance.

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by Luci11e:
I get it but your model looks more like she's just out there posing for you cause you asked her to - doesn't really look like shes dancing

Lone Dancer
by Jon66

Comment by LonnieD:
Background very blown.

Dr. Feelgood
by Jon66

Comment by Gatorguy:
Hi, Critique Club here...

By reading your comments you didn't expect much from this, and as it turns out,you were right.

I think what hurt this was the WOW factor. As you know, an image pretty much has to knock the collective voters socks off to score well and this one obviously didn't do that.

Now why?

Your colors are good, the images is reasonably sharp, you exposed well, the white snow is actually white and not a shade of gray like so many others.

So technical merit is not the problem.

I think it's composition, and maybe subject matter.

To me, the image is too linear and therefor very static which means not very interesting. Maybe the shot from an angle would be more exciting, but then maybe the graphic wouldn't show all that well, I don't know. Personally, I always try to shoot an object like this from a 3/4 angle and then experiment with how it might look at different elevations. I also think the crop is too tight which makes the bench see very constrained. I'm guessing the background was distracting so that's why your choice of cropping.

Maybe the voters didn't think this was a good representation of graffiti?

I hope my thoughts on this have been at least somewhat helpful.

Message edited by author 2010-02-04 09:13:32.

Dr. Feelgood
by Jon66

Comment by PennyStreet:
Nicely seen, nicely shown. (just what the doctor ordered).

Dr. Feelgood
by Jon66

Comment by MinsoPhoto:
A different angle or crop may have worked better here and I think blurring the background would also help to isolate the bench.