Brotherhoodby
PassionsGoldComment by SJCarter: * Greetings from the Critique Club *
First Impression:
Well, I scored this a 6 during the challenge. My first impression was that while it certainly had strong emotional appeal, there were a few technical & meeting the challenge issues.
That being said and upon closer inspection (and after reading the other comments given), I will do my best to provide some constructive feedback. [Next time it might help the CC if you also left some photographer comments regarding your intentions, post-processing steps, etc. - Thanks!]
Composition:
I think this is one of the stronger points of the image. You've got nice leading lines to keep the viewer engaged and inside the frame. The diagonals and curves of the human body usually make an interesting and emotionally appealing composition, and they do here. The climber's shoe at the bottom is a distraction (as mentioned by several commenters) and probably caused your score to suffer a bit. Otherwise though, I think it's a very interesting shot that has a lot of potential.
Subject/Meeting the Challenge:
Your title of "Brotherhood" seems to have hurt you a bit too - because voters like to have a direct link to the challenge theme. However, it didn't hurt you that much, because 5.5+ certainly isn't a bad score at all. The subject matter of the shot obviously exemplified enough "virtue" for most voters to overlook this matter.
Technical (Color, focus, and light):
I like the duotone choice (as did several other commenters) - it seemed to me to add to the baseness & ruggedness of the image. The focus, however, worked against you. While soft focus can add to the artistic merit of some images, I think that in this case a sharp focus would have added to the rugged landscape and mood of the shot.
To grow its vote?:
A little better focus and perhaps cropping out the shoe at the bottom would have probably helped your score, but as I said before, 5.5 ain't bad. I'll take it any day! LOL
Summary:
From reviewing your profile & other challenge entries, congratulations on your second highest scoring shot. I'm sure that there are bigger and better things to come from you and I look forward to seeing them soon. This was a solid challenge entry with a good image.
Just my 2 cents...
Jimmy
