The Watchmanby
AndremComment: Greetings from the Critique Club
First off, welcome to DPC! Glad to see some new submitters here.
A strong first entry --- 5.1388/47% is nothing to be ashamed about. As far as working with this image itself, I would have liked to see a closer crop on the face, which is the focal point of the photo. By getting rid of the distractions, the major element really stands out and is more obvious to people. This also helps give it a less of a snapshot feel to it as the viewer subconsciously realizes that extra time and effort was put into the making of the photograph. When people see a snapshot on DPC, they tend to vote it down because the effort is not there. To me, this was borderline and overlooking some things, I gave it a six as above average.
If I were to go back to this location and reshoot for this challenge, I would have braved the snowbanks and gotten nice in and close to the hydrant. In that instance, without worrying about a distracting background, you could then really understand the focal point immediately and more obviously than in the way you have presented it here.
Techinically, this shot is not terrible. The focus is fine and on. The snow seems underexposed which is a common fault in modern camera light meters. The way around this is, if your camera has the options to manually overexpose the shot by 2/3 of a stop or more until the snow is a nice white color. You could always bracket exposure to assure that you get the right exposure. Alternatively, you could use a handheld light meter to measure the amount of light falling on the snow rather than the amount of light reflected off of the snow which you camera reads.
Overall, I think this image is good, but there is always room for improvement. Good luck with you future submissions!
If you have any questions or comments feel free to Private Message me from my Profile.
Lee
Photographer found comment helpful.
