She is more transparent than the rest...by
TOYComment by strangeghost: Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost
COMPOSITION
An intriguing image. The composition manages to convey a sense of business and loneliness at the same time. The subject is a bit difficult for me to make out though. Appears masculine for some reason (not sure exactly why I think that) but your title suggests it's a woman. The passersby are ghostly and impersonal - maybe a bit too ghostly? Overall, I like the space and context - not too close, not too far. Just right. Excellent comp.
TECHNIQUE
Here's where your pic really gets interesting for me. Choosing the right shutter and aperture to capture the motion must be tricky, and I really like your result. The lighting has an orange caste that I like a great deal. It really feels like a somewhat dirty street scene lit by those ghastly cheap sodium vapor lights that you find in many urban areas. Your use of shutter and aperture to capture the action is nearly perfect. I might have liked to see the ghostly walkers a have a bit more definition, but that's splitting hairs in a very technically difficult shoot that you pulled off extremely well. Your depth of field is very great, which is a little surprising given your large aperture. I'm curious what lens you used, and whether it was a zoom or fixed.
OVERALL IMPACT
Quite a lot of impact, IMO. I'm very happy to have had a chance to study this image closely. As I suggested above, there is a great deal of emotional tension here, implied abandonment, poverty, and the down-trodden ignored by the insensitive masses. It's not easy to pack such a punch into a simple picture, but you've done it. Your final score of 5.7 is a bit disappointing in my view, but then it's easy to see why many DPCers would pass pretty quickly by (nice irony there, no?) if they're not immediately wowed by something.
I just paused to read over your comments and am gratified to see that others recognized what I saw in this image as well. You should be proud of this accomplishment regardless of its final place in the challenge. I am honored to have been selected to critique it.
Photographer found comment helpful.
