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09/10/2009 11:00:12 PM |
Take a look at my scores, and weigh my input accordingly. One man's opinion...
This is an excellent shallow depth of field shot. I'm not a fan of blurry foregrounds, so...
More specific to this shot is that you have too much distraction from your main point. My eye has to search for the intended primary point of the image. There are two things working against the shot here. While the strand starts in basically the lower left corner, and proceeds to the upper right, there is too much lead in before you get to the in-focus section. The back ground is a nice relatively uniform bokah - almost boring in its uniformity. IMO, the image wants to start about 1/2 way between the two fore barbs, and end just before the last barb. For example:
Only editing I did for this was crop, sharpen, and save for web. Don't know if your shot would benefit from Neat Image or not - sometimes I really like what it does - other times not so much.
I like your creativity and trying out some "different" shots. Just seems to me like you didn't quite get the bang you were looking for.
Edited by author - I wrote this before reading the other comments, so forgive the duplication...
Message edited by author 2009-09-10 23:03:09. |
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09/10/2009 05:37:36 PM |
I really like the angle composition. You got the focus point correct. It's placed in the 1/3rd position. You got a lot of the technicals pretty good.
However,
1)the noise, which was already mentioned doesn't work well here.
2)The flat colors/light is not something I prefer.
3)The hot white spots on the twisted wire really jumps out at me.
4)The grey spot in the lower right corner breaks up the browns in the background which attracts my eye.
I like the subject, I have a shot or two of barbs in my pile as well. Yours is probably better than mine with all its faults. If I had voted this image, I would have voted it a 5 or 6. |
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09/10/2009 04:49:08 PM |
Actually, I think people are picking it apart a little much. I like the picture very much (I actually gave it a 7).
I'm actually thinking that people might not have thought it fit lines very well. I think people were expecting long lines. My two cents thrown in, for what it's worth. |
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09/10/2009 02:00:43 PM |
I've had a thought on this "placement in the challenge" thing and where one places:
85 of your votes were 5 or more.
65 of your votes were 4 or less.
You also got a 10.
56% of your votes were above 5, from what I've seen at DPC that's darn good.
I'm looking at it from this perspective now, i.e. Can I stay above 5. Sure I'd like a ribbon, who wouldn't, but right now I'm learning as to what's liked here and what's not. It however won't affect my enjoyment of photography. |
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09/10/2009 01:52:08 PM |
| Hi Dan, I was torn between a 5 and a 6 on this shot, many got 4's from me that I thought were horrendous point, shoot, upload attempts, barring about 35-40 shots that I scored 6+. I personally saw 3 lines, the main line of twisted wire as one and then the two twisted together. 1+1=3? The diagonal is appealing to me, bottom left drawing up to focus at middle right. Perhaps a wee bit more focus before and beyond the barb would have you bought you at least more 5+ votes. Another string of wire OOF can be seen BR and that put me off a 6. Still a well judged shot and relevant to the challenge. WD. |
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09/10/2009 02:39:29 AM |
I myself like the barb you chose to put in focus. You got it tack sharp too! The background does not feel too busy at all to me. I like it - other than it seems to have a bit of noise. Sure, nice octagon shaped bokeh is best, but we all work with what we have (lens, equip, etc)
Personally I feel you deserved a much higher score - a high 5 perhaps |
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09/09/2009 11:57:18 PM |
| I gave it a 6 and pressed on. It is a simple composition and initially grabby, but did not engage my attention for very long. I still felt it deserved a vote on the positive side of the scale. I had actually guessed it would come in at about 5.2-5.3. It appears most of us came in way below where we anticipated. |
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09/09/2009 10:46:38 PM |
I like the composition, but would prefer if the wire is more diagonal on the frame.
The shallow DOF is nice, but maybe it would work better if the first thorns were in focus, and not the second... Im not sure, but the first one keeps calling my attention, and maybe would be better to put that one in focus...
I dont like the bokeh shape, but I think that this is a lens issue, and have nothing to do with your technique...
I think that the main issue here was some noisy feeling on your bokeh, and that the colors seem a little washed... (was this a cloudy day?)
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09/09/2009 10:38:21 PM |
Greetings from the Critique Club (unofficial)!
Initial impression: Some voters take the plural as a given - the challenge was Lines and there's really only one here. Shot looks flat.
Technical: Composition isn't bad but the bg is busy; there is a hint of leading lines but could be more dynamic. The very shallow dof is probably what hurt you the most, as only the twist of the barbed wire is in focus. Could have done a little more in pp in terms of levels/curves/contrast to help the image pop a bit more.
Artistic: I can see the shot you wanted to get, and shooting from the ground up may have been a better way to go here. Don't be afraid to shoot from as many different angles as you can; for example the sky may have been a better backdrop than the pasture. Were you trying for some bokeh? If so, not a bad attempt, but the composition would still need work.
Overall: I would have tried to shoot so that there were more strands of wire visible, and definitely with the wire in the foreground in focus to help lead the eye in. Voters seem to love tack-sharp focus all throughout a shot, but often seem to forgive an oof background, so long as the rest is in focus.
Good try, keep shooting!
Feel free to PM me with any questions,
Susan |
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