Greetings from the critique club:
I was impressed with this photo during the challenge, and it was among my top pics. However, looking at this with a critical eye, and considering the challenge, we can perhaps see why it didn't finish as strong as it might have.
Exposure: The exposure on this photo is excellent, and the use of lighting is stunning. This is one of the photos great strengths, as well as beautiful clarity and sharpness.
Composition: Good. While the composition of this photo works pretty well, when you think about it longer, there are some minor issues. First, the photo is almost divided in half by the boys face and the background. I think it would have worked better if it were more uneven, perhaps cropping a bit more on the right. Or if there's simply more tree in the original, then I'd extend the left.
Second, the background actually competes with the boy. In the background half, we see some bright streamer decorations which compete with the lines and highlights of his face. This makes this an excellent situation to use the lens bokeh to emphasize the foreground. However, the depth of field seleced is too great, or the boy is simply too close to the tree, to use bokeh for foreground emphasis. It is this fact that held this image back in the scoring.
Third, as to the waiting theme, for some reason, this composition does not carry that for me. Perhaps because we are so "up close" with the boy. Because of that, it's harder to envision the whole scene, and instead, it seems to work more as a simple christmas portrait.
Aesthetics: Overall the photo works as a lovely portrait, with the crisp focus and wonderful light on the boy. Bokeh could have been put to better use here, but now, after the challenge, a bit more blur applied to the background would also achieve a nice effect.
I hope you find this helpful. Congratulations on a beautiful photograph. |
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