Spilled Black
by Mick

Comment by Mick:
Thanks for all the comments. They are very much appreciated.

I am truly amazed that this entry did as well as it did. I came up with the idea at the last minute and my wife was rushing me out the door because we had a dinner date. I only had a short time to setup the shot, take a few shots, edit quickly in Photoshop, and get the image uploaded. The total time from idea to upload was literally only about 20 minutes. I knew there were problems with the focus, and I over-edited the image as well, but my wife would not let me spend more time on it. It̢۪s all her fault! (Boy, it̢۪s nice to have someone to blame for your mistakes, eh?) Anyway, I̢۪m lucky it did well.

Perhaps it̢۪s not a coincidence that I was also rushed to get my entry in for the Textures II challenge. I̢۪m afraid it̢۪s not doing as well as this one did. Oh well, there̢۪s always another challenge.

Spilled Black
by Mick

Comment by cbeller:
**Critique Club**

Hello Michael! Congrats on your top 10 placing, on only your third entry.

Positives:
I really like the composition with the model paint bottle in the top left, running down and forming the word "Black". The focus on the bottle and initial spill area is good as well.

Possible Improvements:
I'm going to say the shallow DOF detracts a bit. Personally, I like the way it is, but I think I agree with the other comments that it may be even better if it was entirely in focus. As someone mentioned below, the right side of the cap is blown out and blends into the white background.

Overall a unique take on the challenge that was done very well.

-Chris

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by Mousie:
No wonder my coral picture is doing so badly!

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by JPR:
Great shot. It would be great if you could include a scuba diver or swimmer in this later!

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by e301:
Not sure I go for those electric colours, don't think they help with the display of these textures. It allseems very low in frame, too, and the empty space above it doesn't serve a lot of function to me.

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by relgraphics:
Great colors.

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by TampaDan:
very nice aqua colors.

Coral Fantasy
by Mick

Comment by jonpink:
colours look muted with not much contrast. otherwsie would have been quite nice.

Spilled Black
by Mick

Comment by tarique:
Wish it was a sharper image

Moonglow
by Mick

Comment by TooCool:
From the Critique Club

After looking longer at this shot, I find that this is a very interesting shot from a compositional point of view. You have done a nice job creating a balanced composition.

From a technical standpoint, it is a bit difficult to tell what is in focus in this shot. Because of the silhouette type of composition, you would need (IMHO) to have a very crisp focus on the tree branches to really make this pop. As it is here, you can not really tell if you have any part of the shot truly in focus and you can not tell where the DOF really is. Being a DOF challenge, I believe that this is where some of your low score came from.

What might improve a shot like this? There are a couple of things I would try. First of all this shot screams natural framing. I would try cropping this shot on the right directly down the middle of the tree. This would give you a nice silhoette frame on three sides. The next thing that comes to my mind is using just a touch of fill lighting to bring out a bit of details in the trees. I do not think that this would detract from the effect of the moon at all. I do think that it would help to bring out the focus on the trees.

Overall, I like this shot a lot and would love to see any reshoots that you may attempt as it is such an easy location for you to get to!
TC

Message edited by author 2004-02-19 23:06:21.