Greetings from the Critique Club
I really like the idea you have here, it is very creative.
I believe the technical aspects of this image prevented it from scoring higher, certainly the subject was a good one. From a compositional point of view I think this is spot on. The shells are placed well and lead the eye nicely through the picture. I would quite like to see it the other way round, ie the smaller shell at the front, but that is only for the sake of curiosity nothing more!
What I think hurts this the most is the lighting and your exposure. You have over exposed the image to try and emphasise the white in the background. Fully understand why you would do that, but in so doing, you have also blown out the highlights on the shells, which means you have lost a lot of detail.
It's quite possible your original photo was not over exposed and the overexposure has only taken place during post processing. You state you have just adjusted the brightness, so perhaps (given this was an advanced challenge) you could have used a bit more of a sophisticated post processing technique to help keep the detail in the subject. I do not know what software you use, but for example a levels adjustment layer would give you a little more control when trying to adjust the highlights, then using the brightness only. (Curves would also work if you have the full version of Photoshop). One technique I have used is to adjust the levels and then duplicate the background layer, adjust the mode to soft light, then play with the opacity of this layer. That way you can get a bit more contrast and detail in the subject. (I am not a great Photoshop technician, so it must be relatively simple if I can do it!)
Somebody else also mentioned the focus. Again, I do believe that hurt your score a bit too.
Like I said in the beginning, I think this was a great idea and it's only a pity that the technical aspects let you down.
Sarah |
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