The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep...by
ecdillonComment by skief: Greetings from the Critique Club
First impression on the photo is that there is no real overall theme or focal point to the photo. You have done a good job on the exposure to get the sillhouettes to be sharp.
I do think that the colors overall do contribute to the photo. The sky is just a small section that is blown out, but it does not detract from the photo.
A couple of improvements that may help:
First is that the branches, while the theme for the challenge, do not seem to be a focal point for you to look at. Rather, they are jumbled together and generally seem to form a detraction to the eyes. The eyes are almost forced to jump around from place to place trying to find somewhere to rest and really look at for a while. Especially in sillhouette shots, there should be something that really makes me stop and look at it for a while. Simplify the composition by removing some of the trees/branches from the photo.
Second would be the crop. The trees are supposed to give me a vertical feel, they should be tall and lofty. Instead with the crop that you've given me, everything feels stumpy, short and confined, which is exactly the opposite of what trees should feel like. Also the trees seem to be leaning all to the left (except the one to the far left), so a little clockwise rotation would help to give them more of a vertical feel. If you want the crop you have here, at least remove the branches which are poking in from the right side of the photo.
Overall Impression: While I did not vote in this challenge, I would have scored this picture a 4. The sillhouette and feelings evoked by this photo give it potential, but it just needs a little more of a focal place to make it stand out.
If you have any questions about this critique, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.
Photographer found comment helpful.
