Two Heads are Better Than Oneby
hotpastaComment by Artyste: Greetings from the Critique Club. My critiques are generally geared towards trying to help you improve your score within DPC, and not on any true "artistic" merit of the photograph itself, unless it relates to DPC voters and scoring. Please keep that in mind as you read this.
Initial Thoughts
Hmmm.. not sure I'm going to be able to say much to help you :)
Composition/Content
Actually, there is something I'd like to say. Had you been able to get your camera higher up, I think you could have really improved the composition of this one. As it is, there's just a *little* too much distortion here, and your struggling to look over the frame draws too much attention away from what you are trying to achieve. Had it been a more comfortable pose, with more symmetry between the real you and the framed you, I think this would have been a much stronger image, and a much higher score. Heck.. just the portrait of you in the frame is a 6.x scoring photo in and of itself.
Background
Nicely done and solid black background which really helps highlight the frame. One suggestion would be a mottled grey background, so that the frame wouldn't have disappeared into it so much. Of course, that all depends on *having* one :)
Camera Work/Technical
Nice lighting, good exposure (maybe slightly light on the real you). You seem to lose a little bit of focus in the face of the real you, however, so a deeper DOF would have been recommended. Say, f/5.6 or 6.2 or somewhere in there. (which would have helped the lighting on your skin-tones as well.
Digital Processing
Good work on the processing. No visible marks, everything seems really solid. A little more selective sharpening on your real face might have helped though. Now that I noticed it's softer, I can't seem to move away from that.
Fits the Challenge
Doubly so :)
My Opinion of the Photo
A fantastic concept and well pulled off. As I said, having the camera up just a little higher, or having yourself not looking over the frame so much would have really grounded this for me, and maybe for the voters as well. As it is, you have a fantastic score, but a couple of elements kept it from the ribbons.. which could have been attainable IMO.
Good job, and good luck in future challenges.
Photographer found comment helpful.
