Secret WWII-Era Prison Discovered
by chalice

Comment by pineapple:
Hard to see whether this would come through well enough defined on newsprint. But it certainly does make a viewer want to read more about the discovery.

A New Castle Awaits the Coming Tide
by chalice

Comment by pineapple:
This is a great image and which I liked during the challenge voting period. I like it even more now. It has a lot of usage potential in colour and duotone. Very nice.

A New Castle Awaits the Coming Tide
by chalice

Comment by timfythetoo:
The setup and positioning of this works well. The negative space is also fine in my opinion - maybe cropped just a wee bit tighter, but not much. If taken later in the day the lighting may have not been as harsh. (Just peeked down and looked at the sepia version and I like that one a bit better myslef). Overall this shot was ok but not a real eye catcher making me want to stay longer to view.

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by timfythetoo:
Hey there - running a bit behind on commenting and as I havent been reading the comments here before writing my own, I did read yours in the thread. It seems that mine would not be much different. I didnt notice the man unstil you mentined where he was. Having him somewhere else more pronounced in the shot would have helped. Tripod would have helped big time. It is an interesting idea and it is nice to see people thinking out of the norm. Keep going at it and you will soon succeed.

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by chalice:
This shot obviously failed (especially without a tripod to help me sharpen the focus - although the thick plate glass window hinders a sharp focus too). Having said that, this was the intent... I had a polarizer lens on the camera and intentionally left all of the reflections (which most people found distracting) in the image because one of the reflections was the face of "her man" in the lower right corner. I left the line in the glass in the shot (after experimenting with cropping it out) because I wanted an artificial division between the mannequin and the real man...a sort of contrast between artificial person and real person. If I had cropped the line out or reduced the reflection to improve the clarity I would have lost the point of the shot. So I went with this one. I guess the failing is that it doesn't work. I need to rework either the idea or the execution, or both. I knew I would be hammered for this shot (I have tried something similar with a mannequin before and was scored down) but I still wanted to test the idea. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...or even learned. Your comments are appreciated because the learning part is critical for me. Thanks.

Secret WWII-Era Prison Discovered
by chalice

Comment by seebrown:
A little too dark for my taste

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by Melethia:
I gave you a 5 and am rather suprised to see it finish as low as it did. It's kinda quietly unique. Met the challenge, yes, but what I think may have hurt your score was the very busy and distracting background. You note that you shot at 5.6 - not sure if shooting at a wider aperature might have helped or not, but your best bet would probably to have found a different angle of attack if at all possible. Based on the title, I also found myself trying to find "the man" referenced. There's a small face in the corner, but it's not readily apparent.

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by Louis:
I think we have a softness issue with this image overall, though it could be argued that the interesting mix of elements asks for focus that is not razor-sharp. There is an interesting mix of elements, with the "new wave" kind of mannequin (hope I don't sound too old), the ceramic tiled roof that gives a rather old-world feel, and some kind of entrance that looks like it belongs in a modern shopping mall. I personally like that kind of composition.

But I think there's a lack of focus on anything. Was it intentional, or perhaps was your camera focused on the glass reflections? The elements that are dark give this image a left-handed weight that detracts for me. The join in the panes of glass at right are another distracting element.

This could have been improved, perhaps, by more selecting choosing your subject when shooting, with better focus.

Message edited by author 2006-05-01 20:59:51.

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by kirsty_mcn:
Hmmmm, I've tried to make it say something to me, but I just can't. Seems as though it could have something if you were making some comment on consumerism or fashion, or purely harking back to Dr Who-style mannequin monsters, but with the title "Reflectively Staring at Her Man" it just seems a shot through a window that was entered just in order to enter something.

The more I look at it, the more I dislike the title - it shouldn't be an issue, but it obviously is here on DPC, and I would even have prefered it untitled.

Maybe if the focus wasn't just on her, but there was some context given, by shoppers walking by, and her gaze unchanged or something, maybe that could work...Sorry I don't really have any suggestions for improvement, its just that the subject matter doesn't do anything for me.

Reflectively Staring at Her Man
by chalice

Comment by ericwoo:
--Trading Post Comment--
This is just noy a very DPC friendly shot. They (we) need vibrant colors and lots of neat image to vote high on this site. The shot as a whole is not bad, but nothing really jumps out as an appealing subject. It seems that the most focused oart of the image is the wooden part of the window, thus pulling the viewer's eye to that spot with little interest. The composition is fine, but the shot just lacks some interest. I do not believe that titles make or break an image, but again, this is DPC. OFten we need to be told waht we need to think about an image. I rarely even read the title before I comment or vote for the shot.