The new religion.by
purpleflutterby13Comment: Congratulations! You're the first person to take advantage of my newfound Critique Club status. Hopefully it'll be helpful, and feel free to reply with a critique of my critique!
Pros:
This is a fairly compelling image; the juxtaposition of images on the human body is a technique that always works in getting an emotional reaction from me, anyway. And I think your choice of image and the layout work well - the centered DNA and the coding. Obviously the voters liked it too, as you scored well above the challenge average of 5.32 and in the 80% percentile.
Cons:
For me there are three things that stand out: Skin tone, hair tone, and the relationship with the background. Colorwise there's something not quite 'right' with the skin and hair; both seem a little washed out; the hair in particular could use some additional lighting. It sounds like you did what you could with it, given the image you ended up with. And the way the body sits against the background looks almost "cut and paste" to me; I don't think it is, but the edges look off. Unfortunately I lack the expertise to recommend a solution!
The challenge:
This is a toughy, as you acknowledge in your notes. I'll approach the image's relationship to the challenge from three directions:
"How does it sit with me?" - I can tell you that as a scientist and atheist the conflation of science and religeon is a touchy subject, and had I voted on this one I would have been uncomfortable with the subject and title in this challenge (or in the science one! ;) )
"How did it sit with voters?" - clearly some controversy, as this has a pretty high voting spread, and several DNMC comments.
"How did it sit with you?" - this is really what matters, and from your description it sounds like you said what you hoped to say with it - and of this you should be proud!
Congrats on a great image, and thanks for the opportunity to critique it.
Photographer found comment helpful.
