Cambell's Lighthouse
by Dirtypainter

Comment by jaxed:
Great composition and I like the balance the red in the foreground gives. To bad this wasn̢۪t advanced, you could clone out all the leaves in the water to minimize distractions. My only suggestion would be to sharpen this a bit.

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by Gordon:
Simple, well lit portrait. Good catch lights. The arm position seems awkward and you might want to watch for neck creases with the pose as well. A hair light would really give some texture and depth, or a reflector to your right.

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by graphicfunk:
Crisp with a lovely smile. 7

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by Blackbox:
Almost studio-like...maybe just a tad bit sharper?

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by tlenat:
I find the elbow very distracting and keeps eye away from face. 6

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by Darkend_Sword:
Very simple and sweet look to the picture ( no say it was simple to accomplish). The white background, in this case, seems too strong maybe a softer pastel. Great smile.

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by doctabrez:
sweet
9

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by escapetooz:
The background seems to be overpowering your subject. The pose seems a awkward as well.

Josie
by Dirtypainter

Comment by njb123:
Looks square rather than landscape..

Shutup and Model
by Dirtypainter

Comment by srbrubaker:
Hi David,
Greetings from the Critic's Club.

FIRST IMPRESSION: Your model has an absolutely wonderful "girl next door" look with a warm smile. The lighting is strong and produces a solid technical rendering of the model.

COMPOSITION AND LIGHTING: While I like the model, the treatment produces in me a sense of confusion about the purpose. Fishnet stockings convey the message dark, mysterious, sexy, coy. The shirt conveys a kind of straight-up business sense with an ironic twist. The model produces a third sense, one of fun and openness. So it was easy to be confused about what to think. There are a lot of graphic designers at the site who are trained to look for a coherent message, and I think this hurt the score. In a narrow technical sense the lighting is good, but it fails to either create a strong mood or flatter the model. I observe that portraits with more oblique and moody lighting fared much better in this competition.

PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUE & EDITING: The photo is clear, crisp, evenly illuminated, and well exposed. The crop is quite sensible. Technically it is very good. I suspect that the short focal length lens exaggerated the size of the knee and I think this was a minor problem.

OVERALL: I believe this is a much better photo than the rating might suggest. It is sometimes difficult to anticipate what idiom voters will be expecting for a challenge, and I suspect that the biggest single problem with this photo was that it did not fit the expected idiom.

I hope you find my opinion helpful.
Good Luck,

Steve Brubaker