Makeup Artistby
muckpondComment by Artifacts: Positives:
The concept, pose, technical quality and execution of this image is exceptional. It has a very professional look.
Technicals:
Sharpness, contrast, framing/crop and background are all very, very good. It is especially nice how you have the bright background highlighting help bring out the detail in your model's hair. Putting on blush and your model's reaction to it is great.
The blush red is a to intense for the desat. The greenish overtone around the eyes acts as a major distraction. The edging around the blush itself looks slightly unrealistic.
The Challenge:
Conceptually you are right on with the concept and choice of selective desaturation. The color draws attention to itself. Color is a bit intense for the desat and that worked against it in voting.
.3 above the challenge average was actually pretty decent for DPCers given the major middle of the road scoring dished out for this challenge. The fact the average commenter gave it a 7 is a tribute to the quality of the image. DPCer's hearts were in the right place if not their scores.
Suggestions:
Just one... reduce the saturation of the blush red to reduce it's overall intensity. And get rid of that greenish color cast at the edges of the eye. That alone would have had a major impact and improved scoring greatly. Outside that this image is super.
Photographer found comment helpful.