Splitting the Dby
d95vetteComment by KaDi: Hello from the Critique Club!
This image is very journalistic in its feeling--it documents a sports play in a way that might be appropriate for a newspaper. The yellow shirt of the girl demands attention and pulls the eye toward it. The girls from the opposing team serve to frame the subject. The limited depth of field makes no mistake of who/what the subject is. It appears to have been taken with a long-focal length lens, or so the compression would suggest.
The expression of concentration on the girls face brings an element of emotion to this image--it doesn't, however, appear to be the decisive moment. A half-second later when her foot inevitably connected with the ball her facial expression would possibly be more interesting.
I think the cut-off girl on the right detracts slightly--it would be nice to see a bit more or less of her. The ball sits tightly at the bottom of the frame--it would be a bit better, in my opinion, if it had a little room to move--perhaps a little field in front of it.
The red chairs compete with the bright yellow shirt for attention. (Even though this was a basic editing challenge, the red could have been desaturated some to lessen the effect.)
I think this image needs a little something more to hold the viewer's interest...the girl looking up past the defense, her foot in contact with the ball, a less cluttered background. You might try getting closer to the ground when taking these shots to avoid the clutter from the other side of the field. Though the long lens gets you close to your subject, it also draws the opposing team close to her which would be fine except, here, they have fairly passive body language. I feel one or all of these would improve the message of the photo.
Overall, a fine photo for the yearbook but a little rough around the edges.
I hope you find these comments helpful and not too harsh.
--Kadi
Photographer found comment helpful.