Love Chainby
TheStickComment by purpleflutterby13: Greetings from the Critique Club.
Good take on the challenge - the chains present are both a real one and an emotional one. Well represented.
I think the subject matter is good - the chain is interesting, and the fact that it's on skin is heavily suggestive of loving intimacy, I think that works really well. I think the composition is also very good - the intersecting curvy diagonals are very aesthetically pleasing, and the heart is pointing in an interesting direction, all nice and dynamic.
What heavily brought your mark down (as you can tell from the comments) is the fact that the image appears out of focus. Were you handholding the camera? It's basically impossible to hand-hold a camera for anything longer than a 1/30s exposure (even then it takes practice, 1/60 is comfortable), so if you want a longer exposure, you really do need a tripod. And also, ask your model nicely to keep very still (although for this length of exposure, I don't think that's what caused it). Basically, regardless of what your image is like otherwise, if it's OOF it'll get a sub-5 score, it's like a DPC rule. Another technical point that would've brought it down is the lighting - it's very difficult to photograph metal without the light shining off it. A polarizing filter fixes that, provided you've got one. What I'd try and do (lacking the filter) is diffuse the light as much as possible - bounce it off a wall or a white piece of cardboard.
Anyway, don't worry too much about the score - I think the idea and the composition are very good, but the score was brought down by technical objections. And technical stuff is something you pick up over time, especially in a place like DPC.
PM me if you have any questions.
Jelena
Photographer found comment helpful.
