veiledby
irish_eyesComment by CEJ: Hello from the Critique Club!
I have studied your image and have the following to offer:
Composition/perspective - this is an interesting shot and took some time to figure. At first it almost appears as a poor choice in crop or a mistake by the photographer. Everything is cut off. There is no real center of focus or subject to grasp your attention. Only part of the back shows, only part of the arm shows, no real background except in the upper left and only part of the hair shows - nothing to attach it to, it just hangs there. At first the veil is kind of lost and I am assuming the veil is your 'delicate' aspect. Once I realized that the image took on a new feel. I just wish it was a more prominent element.
Color - well, this is b/w so color is not a factor. However, your control of the heavy shadows that hurt the white in a b/w image such as this is very good - they don't exist.
Lighting - for most of the image the lighting is very good. No real harsh areas except for the lowqer right corner where it appears a bit blown out and you lose the detail of the dress. You didn't list any processing steps so it is hard to tell if this may have been contributed to with processing. But overall, the lighting is fairly well done. The detail in the veil is clear (except in the lower right) and the beaded detail of the dress is clear - except as noted above.
Challenge requirements - if the veil was a more prominent feature in the shot it would have helped. As it is, it meets the challenge, but there are other distractions that take away from that. The small portion of background that shows is a bit of a distraction as well. Your overall focus is good which helps a lot.
Overall/my opinion - this is a little hard to look at due to the angle and items mentioned in the first section. The dark spotted portion of background I find distracting a bit as well. I think your perspective would have worked and been a much stronger element if the image contained more of the person and eliminated the out of focus backgrgound.
Photographer found comment helpful.
