Life is fragile: like a house of cardsby
amanComment by RKT: ********Hi there Amara, greeting from the " Critique Club "********
First, let me welcome you to DPC! I see this is your first challenge, I hope you weren't too let down by your score, the DPC voting community can be rough, particularly in the open challenges.
Ok...lets get started here. When I first saw this image, I must admit I was a bit surprised to see it was an entry in the delicate challenge. To me this image seems more "bold" than delicate...I think perhaps this is because of the strong and vibrant colors, particuilarly the bright gold background. The color seems to overwhelm the delicacy of the situation you have created here. I also noticed you put this image in the "action" gallery...a proper place because this is quite action packed!
Technically speaking I see a few issues...the first being the uber saturated colors, perhaps a black and white conversion would have connected with the "delicate" theme a bit more? I am so wowed by these vibrant colors it find it difficult to get past them. Another issue is the lighting...am I to assume that you used a flash? Lighting from a camera mounted flash tends to flatten thing out a bit, it can take away "depth", but I also see that you had a 1 second exposure so maybe you didn't use a flash. Perhaps you could try this set up again with different lighting? You can get very inexpensive "lighting" set-ups from you local hardware store, try placing them at different angles, high, low, above, below, off to the sides, and see how the light moves and changes...it's fun, I urge you to give it a try! Speaking for myself, I must say I do love doing a good still life. Another issue I see is the composition/cropping...I would actually like to have seen more of this house of cards, what an effort you put forth building this house, so why not show is more of it...the UNO cards were an interesting idea, but then again then are so bold, perhaps just a "regular" deck may have been more effective. I like the tranparency of the doll and I also find that reflection just above it quite intriguing...it almost makes it seem as if this were underwater, very interesting.
If you have any more questions or have anything else you'd like to discuss, please do not hesitate to drop me a note. Again, welcome to DPC and I hope you stick around...there is so much to be learned here! Be sure to check out the tutorials...there is a lot of good avdice to be found there.
Photographer found comment helpful.