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nemesise1977Comment by strangeghost: Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost
The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.
TECHNIQUE
The subject is sharply focused but the very dark segment on the left is a little distracting. I can't tell if it's due to the light or the actual color of the object. Other clues seem to point to it being part of the color of the object. What is it?? Looks like an old gnarled tree trunk or something, with an overall saddle shape. The sharpness and textures are outstanding, and your dof gives the distant background a softness that draws attention back to the subject. Exposure looks good for the scene and lighting appears to be indirect sunlight from an overcast sky. Nice job on the BW duotone, but I wonder if you really captured the full dynamic range available. That looks like snow or ice at the bottom just left of center. Overall, the image seems to lack any clear highlights (as the snow might have been) other than the distant details on the shoreline of the lake.
COMPOSITION
My inability to tell exactly what I'm looking at makes it tough to evaluate the artistic merits of the composition. The centeredness of the subject implies its importance, but it's not clearly a tree trunk, or a segment of a tree, though I think that's what it is. Comp-wise, maybe a slightly wider take of that object would make it clearer what it is, and possibly de-centering the placement as well. Just on the basis of the image, it's tough to tell what your purpose was in making this particular picture. Is it the interest of the object itself? Its placement with respect to the surrounding landscape?? Not clear to me.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Emotional impact is a vital element for a truly great image. Does this image have it? I'd have to say not. There's nothing here that strikes me as memorable, and no element of the photo that pops out and grabs my eye. It looks more like a study of some type, but again, I have very little idea what it is I'm looking at. This, I think, is an example of a photo where technical adequacy does not rise above the ambivalence of the subject matter. It's not a bad photo at all, it's just not a terribly memorable one.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Your commenters were also wondering what it was, though it seems as though most who commented liked the image overall. I appreciate that in your photographer's comment, you confirmed that this was an old tree on the summit of the mountain. I doubly think that a wider field would have helped this shot as it would have given the voters a clear frame of reference: a cool gnarled tree is more interesting than a small (but interesting!) part of an gnarled tree. Your final score of 5.37 was above average (63rd %ile) for the challenge, but possibly a little disappointing to you. It was a large challenge that had many outstanding and memorable shots, and yours was likely lost in the mix to the harried voters. Keep shooting. I like your eye!
Photographer found comment helpful.