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03/06/2006 09:01:30 PM |
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost
The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.
TECHNIQUE
On my monitor (a bright iMac LCD), the background looks extremely dirty with lots of spots and specks visible. Just to make sure my monitor is not at fault, I also used a traditional CRT to view your image. While the background was darker, the specks and spots were still clearly visible. I'm sure that this hurt you in the voting because any kind of distraction that takes the eye away from your subject is bound to irritate the voters. It looks like you had a piece of cloth as background. Moving the background as far back from your subject as possible helps to blur it during the shot. In your case, it looks so close (perhaps even touching that branch to the lower right?) that it's in pretty sharp focus. Any dirtiness will show up as though spotlighted, and that's apparently what happened to you. The lighting on your subject is pretty good, but I think you could have made more dramatic use of shadows, given all the cool textures and protuberances that this gnarled piece of wood provides. Focus looks pretty good, as does exposure, though it is a little washed out at points on the vertical branch extending toward the top. I like your choice of duotone (sepia) but wish the background was darker (or white, which would have been cool).
COMPOSITION
This largely centered composition could work if you had nailed the technicalities. As shot, it has a rather plain appearance. Not to harp on your background, but compositionally, I think it fails miserably. Due to the spots and obvious texture in the cloth, my eye is continually drawn there and away from your subject. The color doesn't really work either. Darker or much, much more diffuse would have added a lot of appeal to the photo.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Unfortunately, the technical flaws pretty much eliminate any real impact this photo might have had. I think your subject has considerable inherent visual interest, and wish you could have really isolated that facet and drawn it out. Perhaps a closer crop, or even a near-macro of certain nicely textured regions of the stump, with more peripheral regions softly blurred - again, all with a diffuse, nearly not-there background?? I wonder.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I see that I was a lot harder on your background than your commenters (only one mentioned it!). Your final score of 5.15 put you just under the halfway point of this HUGE challenge. Not bad but I bet you were disappointed. Had you nailed a technically perfect version of this shot, I bet you would have added at least .5 to your score, maybe more given how much commenters liked your tones. I hope I was not too negative with my comments above - I call'em like I see'em. I like your eye. Keep shooting! |
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 Photographer found comment helpful. |
Comments Made During the Challenge  |
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02/28/2006 04:31:41 AM |
| Ah - just a tad more negative space on the top half, and I would have bumped up my rating - I'm liking it :) |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/27/2006 06:33:15 PM |
| Neat looking stump, excellent composition, perhaps add a background |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/24/2006 10:49:01 AM |
| Nice piece of wood, amazing what nature can sculpture :) Very nice lighting and even background, just at the top, a little bit of blow out. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/23/2006 03:38:01 PM |
| Nice texture shot, there is some noise and flecks in the background that is a bit off putting and the focus of the wood could probably be a bit sharper. Nice duotone colour, refreshing after all the B&W shots! |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/23/2006 06:37:14 AM |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/23/2006 05:33:31 AM |
| great texture...great work...hope this does really well for you this is true to the challenge |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/22/2006 05:00:01 PM |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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02/22/2006 10:29:04 AM |
| Smooth textures, lovely shadows. I love the tones too - good job. |
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| Photographer found comment helpful. |
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