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mattmacComment by Artifacts: Positives:
The selective desaturation was done very competently. The moment captured with the bird good and overall technicals fine.
Technicals:
The trick with selective desaturation is to get the borders natural and keep the color natural with the black and white background. You did well on both counts.
Sharpness and general lighting are all right.
Overall the background is featureless and on the dark and forboding side in strong contrast to the main subject. The entire left side of the image adds little to the overall image and leaves the bird nearly center framed.
The Challenge:
Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. You predict 5.45 and get a 5.47. You might consider buying a lottery ticket. :)
Your score and placing were a little above average. Back when I was allowed to vote I scored this one a "7". In my world that means I agreed with voters and thought it average to. So did you, btw. :)
I was influenced by the featureless background and that the entire left side adds so little to the composition. Otherwise, technically speaking, it is well done and I'd consider giving it an "8" now. I scored that challenge fairly low overall. I'm not a particularly strong fan of selective desaturation to start with.
Suggestions:
Since the background adds so little you might consider a square crop with the bird on the far left of the crop. It would give the viewer more subject to look at, give it an off-centered positioning of your main subject and remove the uninteresting background on the left side.
Photographer found comment helpful.
