Saltwater Bubblesby
slickchikComment by KiwiShotz: ::: Critique Club :::
Hi, this is the in-depth critique you asked for from one of the CC members. Well, you wowed them didn't you!
First Impression - the most important one:
This is a captivating image. It is so unusual that nobody was ably to get their head around it. This really was worth a serious score to you because it became impossible for viewers to passively click the score button and move on.
Subject:
Well the subject is everything isn't it. Was there anyone of your commenters who didn't go
"... wow, what is it ..."? You have captured not only a great image but also you have captured the essence of scoring well in DPC and in general having your photos lauded in all fora - you have to have a wow factor. You bought the camera because you wanted to shoot the corals and your love and understanding of the subject shows through in not just this image but all of your portfolio.
Composition:
I don't know that traditional composition rules are or should be a consideration in an image such as this. You do instead what you have done, look for the design and the mood that conveys the impact. Here for me it is the tentacles floating over back and edged with light that really sets off the larger softer looking bulbous parts. You have the eye and you have used that studied designer element into your other works Pink Doughnut and Full Moon as well. This tells me that this one is no accident. You're not afraid to crop of major parts of the subject whilst leaving neutral black areas for impact.
Technical (Colour, focus, and light):
Almost perfect. Your sharpness and depth of field are impressive and that's something that is near impossible in a macro environment. I noticed you were only using f13 (vs f32 for Pink Doughnut) which makes the DOF even more surprising. I think you should be very happy with your camera/lens combination. The DPC voters have appreciated it as well.
OK, now to the light and the only thing in the whole image not 100% because in two places the image has gone to white or "blown out" as its called. Now when you have such a great image like this, voters have to start getting picky in order to give themselves room to vote for the perfect image so a blow out might be a reason for someone to give it one less point.
Digital is different to film. Over exposed highlights in film can often be clawed back in the print because the information is still in the negative. Not so for digital. What you see is what you get. If you can't see it now, you never will, the information is simply not there. Areas that are too dark on the other hand
do have all the information, you just can't see it. So in digital, under-expose if you're worried about blow-outs. You can lighten it and recover hidden information.
To grow its vote?:
Do you realise that it only needed 33 voters to add a point for you to be in 10th place? Maybe if you'd have been able to hold the blow out, it might have happened.
Summary:
Well done on your first challenge, impressive results. Stick to what you do so well and specialise, you will just become one of the gurus of that genre. The challenge for you now (speaking from experience) is to not think it's easy to hit the top 20 in every challenge. On my 4th challenge, I got a 5th and haven't been in the top 50 since :)
Brett
Photographer found comment helpful.