Judith
by esdarby

Comment by Nitin:
Composition: Good, Shows emotion.Not a fan of the angle.
Technical: Ok
Porcessing: Looks somewhat overdone
Score: 6

Judith
by esdarby

Comment by f-32:
That mournful person must be MUCH older than they look - the Date of Death is 1904. How canyou remember that person after 101 years?

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by shadow:
it appears grainy, its a boring subject and there is lack of details on the chess piece. the cropping isnt fantastic and the background is distracting.

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by totaldis:
looks quite a bit like the arby's oven mitt character

Judith
by esdarby

Comment by jseyerle:
1904 :) You have been in mourning since pre-conception.
Nice shot though.

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by SJCarter:
I agree with many other commenters feedback regarding the background details - they are distracting - and the brown shadow on the knight seems like a shadow caused by another light source with something in the way. I think the DOF should extend lower as well. I like the gold tones at the base of the piece. The lighting/highlights on the lower portions of the knight also seem to be blown out. I like the angle of the shot and the feel of depth it gives, but the other technical aspects detract from the overall image. I also have to agree that the competition in the Macro V Challenge was exceptional tough, and since many voters score on a scale, your shot was probably penalized more than it might have been in another challenge.

Hope this helps. Just my 2 cents...

Jimmy

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by Artifacts:
The perspective and composition is generally good. The yellow/orange color in the background adds visual interest to the image. It has low noise. General technical quality is decent.

Ironically, the incredible strength of the other images entered in this challenge may have had a slight negative impact on your score, but not lots.

It isn't so much that the DOF is super shallow but it is where it is centered that hurts. Almost always you want the eye to be center focused, even with a chess piece. Yours is center focused on the forehead. That is a fault.

The background, though dark, is still distracting because it has detail that makes the viewer wonder what is back there. Anything that detracts from the main subject should be eliminated from the composition. All elements in an image should always support the main subject.

The biggest distraction is the brownish shadow on the piece itself. Whether it is real or not, the browness and shape of it looks unnatural. The viewer really can't figure out what the heck it is. However, it is distinct from the nice black shadow on the right. The brown color is not appealing and it sorta looks like bad burning to most viewers.

Message edited by author 2005-07-12 16:01:10.

Judith
by esdarby

Comment by SandyP:
This is a sad photo. Interesting angles, and the sepia tones look really good with that turbulent sky and the old, old gravestone.

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by downtherabbithole:
wow, umm I have to agree with the harsh shadows. I don't want to rip this apart and I do like what you were going for but a general rule of thumb, in any sort of still life photo 9 times out of 10 blur is bad. If the whole piece was in a sharp focus and the background wasn't it would different. I hope that helps

Knight
by esdarby

Comment by davidx76:
Your aperture is listed at F/2.8, which is quite shallow and explains why the entire knight isn't in focus. Try somthing like F/8 and use a tripod/ better lighting so that there isn't any blur/shaking at the low shutter speed. Unless, of course, the shallow DOF was an artistic thought...