Running Away by
JoaniePComment by salmiakki: Greetings from the Critique Club
Your comments are quite defensive, so from the beginning you obviously knew you may get dinged for it not being straight. I have to agree with you, it gets old being told things are not straight! It certainly doesn't affect my view of this image at all.
Obviously this is a set up shot, so it would be interesting to see how it looked in horizontal orientation where the boy may not be so centered in the frame. I think it works as it is, but I'm trying to think of reasons why it may not have scored to it's potential.
One person commented that the boy, clearly the primary subject, is not entirely in focus. On studying the image for a bit longer I think I would agree. It's only ever so slightly off, but enough to make a difference in scoring.
Overall I think the composition and subject are excellent and I like the title.
Coming now to the main reason why I think you did not score as high as you probably would have hoped. I do believe that the toning in this image is a little bit heavy. I think sometimes when doing this type of challenge, the less is more approach is the way forward. Looking at the top 3 images, you will see how subtle the toning is on those. (I could also listen to my own advice on this point!)
Hopefully this is helpful to you.
Sarah
