New Beginnings
by Deve

Comment by Bear_Music:
Greetings From Critique Club

This is a very handsome and *human* portrait, not artificial or idealized at all. And that's a major plus. But there's one thing in particular, in post processing, that you could do to make it dramatically better: you need to magnify the image so youi can work on the eyes and make them lighter and snappier, especially the model's right eye, which is lost in shadow. This doesn't have to be extreme, but eye contact is everything in this sort of portrait.

Beyond that, you could have improved it in the shooting by moving your POV just enough to the right to lose that window between the trees, which is sort of distracting. Or possibly just crop this image to a square and lose all the distraction.

He IS a beautiful man, and it shows. Thank GOD, indeed :-)

Robt.

Firing up!
by Deve

Comment by chalice:
Top Ten for sure.

Play Time!
by Deve

Comment by Zita:
Very much appreciate the POV, the intensity of the subject, the color saturation. Well executed shot.

Play Time!
by Deve

Comment by jagar:
The winner no doubt, nicely shot.

New Beginnings
by Deve

Comment by blindjustice:
Nice natural portrait.

New Beginnings
by Deve

Comment by herfotoman:
This is a timeless image. Thanks.

Firing up!
by Deve

Comment by kiwinick:
well taken really shows a lot about the sport

Open for Pollination
by Deve

Comment by Jules1x:
Critique Club Critique:

Congratulations on your first entry. What a great find, with several wonderful shades of purple in your image.

Compositionally, I like the fill-the-frame idea for your shot. Your subject is shown off in all its glory, and yet there is enough of that beautiful, smooth background for me to enjoy that as well. The bee really did not do much for me in this shot. The flower is such a stunner, that I did not even notice the bee for the first few minutes looking at the image. The bit of yellow in the flower kind of drowned out your sweet, but more muted, bee.

Technically the shot is good I think. Your purples are very realistic, and the shallow depth of field left you with a wonderfully smooth background. However, that shallow depth of field also left you with some softness in parts of your subject. There is a spot on the left petal that is quite hazy. Also, on the bottom petal there is a spot that looks black, it almost looks void of all detail and I wonder if the shot was underexposed just a bit.

Overall this is a lovely photo and I enjoyed spending time on it. It definitely met the challenge, and it shows with the great score and placement in the challenge.

I look forward to more of your entries. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Julee

Open for Pollination
by Deve

Comment by Cory:
Just a bit too contrasty. Great purple though!

Open for Pollination
by Deve

Comment by Ammie:
This is the best flower picture of the mix. Beautiful light