Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by sidpixel:
*Hello from Sid and the Critique club*

Congratulations on your ribbon for your excellent entry that meets the challenge fully

Thanks for the interesting notes, I hope you have fully recovered from what must have been an exhausting trip! What an excellent choice of subject very well executed from all aspects, it makes a fascinating high key subject. Your viewpoint has enabled you to recreate a very effective artificial symmetry that with your most appropriate title makes for a completely new subject matter in its own right. The leader at the front has a distinctive identity that separates him from his followers all of whom together with their shadows make a most appealing and fascinating image, I like it a lot.

I'm very pleased for you that it has been so well received here and deservedly so, well done, Sid

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by jomari:
Congrats on the well deserved red.

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Ivory:
Nicely done, it really does look like little aliens. Congratulations on your red ribbon.

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by patches:
Congratulations on your Red. Looks like little people from outerspace!

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by mariuca:
Your image contains all the complicated story of the interesting wedding! Pomp and laughter

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Ja-9:
Excellent!!!

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by jomari:
Love it. Amazing how they have personality. Top 5.

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by pixelpig:
I don't know what to make of this strange subject. But I like it that the top half is symmetrical with itself, but not with the bottom.

Take Us To Your Leader
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by tanguera:
LOL at the title. They don't seem to be dangerous...

3 Crows + 1 Open Window
by Dr.Confuser

Comment by Dr.Confuser:

Originally posted by sidpixel: *Hello from Sid and the Critique Club* An interesting image that meets the challenge. This is an appealing image in all sorts of ways but the detail is what holds your interest well, the challenge of your title too I reckon! It is a lovely building with some lovely detail and lovely tones all very appealing. I don't agree with your commenter about it being slightly crooked I think what they are seeing is a very slight tendency towards converging verticals from your shooting position below. Hah, I see it yes, the top is askew he were right you know! Having said that the bottom is not, ok I give up! Although it is a well executed image I think where it fails in terms of the challenge is that the DOF from use of f8 is not obvious and this is perhaps why it scored lower. I think for the purpose of this challenge you need to demonstrate the f8 aperture through a selective DOF and perspective. This could quite easily have been taken at f4 for example but because it is all on the same focal plane you wouldn't know the difference. Thanks for your submission, Sid

Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated.

By way of explanation, I was editing on a tiny laptop with an old version of PS and without my normal suite of pluggins and I committed an editing error i didn't spot which would have corrected the skew at the top. Good catch to you and godot.

I disagree completely with your comments on DOF. The building was about 150 feet from where I was standing. F/8 gives considerable DOF at this distance. If I had the time I would dust off my trig skills and compute the distance from my point of view to the center of the building which is obviously in focus. Then compute the distance to the right or left edge. I believe the DOF offered by F/8 would clearly have them both in focus. And since they were in focus, and since it was shot at f/8 the math would prove unnecessary. It is perhaps unrealistic to expect a photo like this to demonstrate softening associated with shallow DOF.

This was essentially a 'free study' where the only constraint was f/8. If the image fails, it is because there were better photos it competed with. Better subjects which captured greater voter interest. It's a complex image that requires a little study to appreciate. I'm grateful for your attention to detail, but it's more than I expect from casual DPC voters. I'm pleased with where it placed. I'm disappointed in my self for not catching the editing error. And I'm thankful for your thoughtful critique. ;)