The Road to Brown is Paved With Good Intentions
by Senay

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Probably won't hit the brown with this one, or any other color. A good effort, however, with good intentions.

The Road to Brown is Paved With Good Intentions
by Senay

Comment by VitaminB:
I hope you dont get a brown in this challenge. I like the creativity in the shot, using the brown in camera, and blue on the background. Im not crazy about the wooden desk though. 6

The Road to Brown is Paved With Good Intentions
by Senay

Comment by Alicia:
Clever - and true - ha!

The Road to Brown is Paved With Good Intentions
by Senay

Comment by Covert_Oddity:
Great concept, love the message! Get the feeling this one isn't quite going down that road. 7.

House Of Secrets
by Senay

Comment by BeefnCheez:
HDR would have been nice on this. 5

House Of Secrets
by Senay

Comment by beatlesfan:
Great subject, clouds... just could have been taken better. Just my opinion!

Summer Radiance
by Senay

Comment by macrothing:


Critique Club Critique

First Impressions
Ah - I pull another of your images, the luck of the draw. I gave this image a 5 in voting. First impressions, as best I recall were: a nice face which shows the eyes fairly well.

Photograph Information, Technicals & Composition Review
The focus seems sharpest on her hair, which the lighting also helps, as it is strongest there. There is fairly good lighting in her left eye, but a more even spread across the face, or just a little more on the right, would have been better, for this style portrait, in my opinion. 1/15 shutter speed?, hmm... for a portrait, that's a long time to ask someone to stay still.

Compositionally, I think the eyes placed further up the frame and a tighter crop at the top of her head/hair, would have allowed more balance. I think there's also room to take some off the left side of the frame, despite the fairly good negative space use.

I don't mind the framing so much, but not sure it is enhancing her features, especially her eyes. Although it does look like you've made an effort to try to pick up and use the color of her eyes.

It would be nice to see this young lady with a little more subtle make up - remembering that the photograph will pick up every little flaw. The mascara seems a bit 'clagged'.

The natural light is nice, but giving a little direction to your subject, especially to work with the light better and allow it to highlight her various features, including by experimenting with angles and poses, may have produced something a little stronger. There are overexposed areas on the face, so adjusting your exposure levels and/or adjusting the position to the light, would have helped there.

The background seems very dull and uninteresting and with the somewhat muted colors, blends in all the more. Minor, but her t-shirt softened to not be so noticeable may have also helped a little.

Comments, Score & Placement Review
346/419 seems a bit harsh for the image, I think it has good potential and you are on the right track. 5.13 is an ok score, especially in a Free Study.

You certainly got some extra-helpful comments during voting that provide excellent pointers for future use and learning.

Summary
Good potential that may have been able to be tweaked in pp, but I think the main ingredients need to be had in camera at the time of shooting. You're on the right track, good luck with the next portrait. Experiment, experiment, experiment.

edit:typo

Message edited by author 2009-08-09 09:02:57.

Summer Radiance
by Senay

Comment by bvy:
Sinister!

Summer Radiance
by Senay

Comment by kevip6:
This could have been so much better, the expression is great, but the crop could have done with shifting down a touch to give a bit more space under the chin and cut out a little more of the top of the head. The worst part of this portrait is the lighting and colours though. There is a large hot spot on the right of the nose which means the light source was way to harsh. The colours seem all screwed up as well with a very yellow cast to the skin and very red on the left of the face (camera left). I would say that this was originally under exposured and the levels/brightness has been increased in Post Processing? this could have caused the blown out highlights on the nose and also pushing skin tones can make them very red. Lots of potential here but some major flaws IMHO. I hope this helps, PM me if you want more detail.

Stranger to None and a Vision to Some
by Senay

Comment by JulietNN:
Hi from the CC Club.

A powerful image you have going on here, the black and white is very good. Nicely sharpened, good clean lines. It does need straightening out though.

I read on the comments where it said 'only death is represented here, but he did rise up, so death adn life is represented.

Nice choice in black and white. If before you go into black and white, twiddle with some of the contrasts adn selective colours, then turn into black and white, this will give you some amazing contrasts to your shot. YOu have a natural darkness from the clouds in the bottom of your pic, these could be brought out a little to make teh white in the top very dramatic.