Shadows of WHY!by
JudiComment by KiwiShotz: ::: Critique Club :::
Heya Judi, this is going to be fun
First Impression - the most important one:
My first impression when it opened was of the green road. Is that dumb? I don't know but the complimentary colours of the 'green' road and the purple sky was quite captivating and I think important to the image.
Subject:
I think I agree with most of the commenters where the shadow is a significant part of the image but not a major part - as perhaps it should be to get the best out of the challenge. Having said that, I was still drawn to its presence before I even looked to see what challenge the image was from. So something about it worked, maybe the caption did it.
The model's pose and the mood of the whole pic is I think exactly what you wanted to convey. It's such an unusual scene that frustration and what-the-hell comes through loud and strong. The dog is a gem. The contrast between the guy's anguish and the dog's relaxed and carefree presence just tops it all off.
Composition:
I have a pet hate for crooked images if it doesn't look like it is a deliberate contribution to the art. This doesn't, it kind of looks like sloppy work. I know you don't do sloppy, but that's the impression to the untutored eye and I would have scored it 5 because of it. I'm also wondering how much more impact there would have been with a little more vertical thirds use.
OK that's the niggly bits out of the way, now lets get to the good stuff. I LOVE the sky and how it completely dominates the 'small insignificant man'. It is the large and overbearing sky that gives it the drama and the feeling of it all being too much for the guy in the street. Anything less and it just would not have worked, so you did good:)
Technical (Colour, focus, and light):
The short rather than long shadow has cost you points for sure. I guess when your source of light is a street light, there's not a lot you can do about that. Am I right in guessing that there's a strobe for the model in that 15secs? The detail on the model is pretty sharp, it doesn't look possible for anyone to stay that still for that long. I was trying to find its shadow and can't so i went back to thinking "no strobe"? I'm not sure that you could have introduced an additional lower light source without ending up with confused shadows and a bad result.
To grow its vote?:
Well I guess you got a bit of DNMC reaction. I bet you're frustrated now that "Desolation" hadn't come up instead. As I said, I would have given it an "average" because of the tilt, maybe others did too.
Summary:
This baby has a lot of impact and is a fine photograph. It didn't please the DPCers - so what? Interesting and thoughtful image.
Brett
Photographer found comment helpful.
