Abandoned in the middle of nowhere
by clickodak

Comment:
Hi Marcel,

I'm new to the Critique Club and this photo came up as one of the first for my critique.

This is a bold and dramatic image. Shooting directly into the light with the placement of the sun/sunburst behind the tree creates a striking center of attention. It also defines a very difficult lighting tableau to photograph effectively. I think you've attempted to address the challenging light with HDR processing.

For my taste, the overall intensity of the processing is too extreme and creates several competing elements that seem to be vying for attention. For example, the deep blue sky at the top of the frame accentuates the HDR halo effect behind the tree. There is also a dramatic color temperature shift from the deep cool blues at top of the sky to the golden warmth of the clouds on the horizon and the crop directly behind the tree, which feels quite unnatural to me. While there are several interesting aspects to the scene, I just can't seem to grasp it as a whole, cohesive image.

A note about the composition - You've placed the sun almost exactly at the lower left intersection of traditional "rule of thirds" lines. I think that combining the brightest area of the image with this powerful compositional positioning tends to bring the viewer's eye to rest directly on the sunburst and places great weight on the lower left corner of the image.

All that said, I understand that your intent may have been to express the intense drama and variety of light throughout the scene - you've certainly done that. It's full of color and passion. Personally, I find the warm yellow-green color and highlights of the crop growing behind the tree to be among the most attractive part of the scene. When taken as a single isolated component of the photo, I think it's a very pleasing bit of processing.

Checks
by MAK

Comment:
Sultry and mysterious. Perhaps a bit heavy on the skin softening. Nice.

Amethyst
by naomik

Comment:
This is fascinating. A unique perspective and fabulous technical control. I'm not sure why the purple seems to work, though. But it does, so... I'll just live with it and enjoy.

Edged in Purple
by banmorn

Comment:
I'm not sure how many big bold flower close-ups I can handle and still keep liking them so much. I really don't like flower photos that much at all... Yeah... that's my story - I'm sticking with it. Really. Really nice.

X-factor
by cutout

Comment:
I have no idea why I continue to be so taken by your vision. That lack of understanding may well be the biggest part of the attraction.

Shez Waterlily
by Lydia

Comment:
Lovely... with a near perfect natural symmetry. Bravo.

Regal
by Ja-9

Comment:
Now that's PURPLE. Yowza!

For You
by Mond

Comment:
Clever juxtaposition and lighting.

Galactic Disk
by Cory

Comment:
Absolutely wonderful.

Dice Roller
by adriano74

Comment:
Hi Adrian,

I'm new to the DPC Critique Club and your image popped up for me to critique...

What strikes me at first impression is the overall sharpness of the image and the care that was taken in its set-up. The high contrast B&W is effective and the pure white dice have retained detail in the highlights. There's even detail in the concave indentation of the pips on each die. The shiny paper is a nice addition and adds a bit of depth to the scene. The black dice are well exposed, too. Their background approaches the pure black of the background with the shape implied only by corners, edges, and shadows. Lots of excellent technical work here from my perspective - there's no question that this catches the eye on first glance. In addition to the first glance technical work, I like the care in placement and faces of the dice. The white dice showing a 7 from the top and an 11 from the side implies you may be a craps player. I'm less certain of the 8 sided dice's purpose in gaming, but did notice the care to show all 8 faces between the two black dice. Nice details.

That said... the things I find distracting, or not as effective as the excellent technical work, are primarily in the composition and perhaps the subject itself. You have a strong diagonal line, but in my eye it's weakened by the empty space to the right. Although we're often warned against centered subjects, I'm thinking this might have been better with the right side cropped. The bottom left also feels a bit tightly cropped to me... made more apparent by the presence of the white hairline border. Without the boarder the tight crop on the lower right might have opened up a bit.

All in all, it's a solid image with wonderful attention to detail and care in execution. Lots of excellent work on this!

Message edited by author 2014-08-28 19:45:50.