Hello, and greetings from the Critique Club. Ben.. my good Ben.. please don't hate me for what I'm about to say :)
Initial Thoughts
Hey, pretty good candid portrait, love the textures.. not really seeing much *high* contrast though..
Composition / Content
This is a very classic and wonderful composition, as I'm sure you probably know. Has a real sense of movement and energy. The expression on the guitarist's face is wonderful, full of concentration and effort. In this area, I can't find any glaring faults. This is a very well taken photo.
Background
A great use of lines in the background to complement the lines of your subject, which add to the dynamic. It's nicely out of focus, and does pretty much everything a background should.. IMO.
Camera Work / Technical
Although there are some traditionally frowned upon features in this photo (noise, reddish skin tones, slight softer focus issues), they all seem to have been done deliberately, and really give the photo a nice artistic feel. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you understand, knowing you as I do, they all probably still contributed to your lower (and undeserved) score. I just mention it so I can hear myself speak really, and maybe give other readers of this critique a moment of thought.
Digital Processing
What can I say, you set out with a vision and seemed to nail what you wanted with your processing. Some great work there.
Fits the Challenge
Actually.. I was going to say that I just didn't feel this was "high contrast" enough, but the more I look at it, and the more I talk about it, the more I see that yah.. your high to low contrast change is pretty stark throughout, not a lot of mid-tone fall off here. I think maybe the whole "Black and White" crowd and a lesser understanding of what high contrast can be (which I still stumble over obviously), led to your lower score as well.
My Opinion of the Photo
It's a great photo. A stunning candid of a performer that he'd probably be thrilled with. If you were to do the whole band, individually, with shots like this, you could probably make an album cover out of it :)
It's unfortunate that some really nice, artistic work like this finds its way to the lower ends of the heap. A good job all around. |
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