Better than ......?by
taljComment by DrAchoo: OK, let's take a look. I gave it a 7, so apparently I liked it more than the average voter.
The technicals:
Composition is well thought out. Slightly off centered main subject and nicely split background. Lighting is most excellent (one of the things I appreciated). Just the right amount of highlighting. Focus is also excellent. Use of DOF is just fine. A shallow DOF would not have helped this picture. Colors are nicely done as well. Definitely would not have been improved in B&W.
The feel:
Qualifies as a simple pleasure in my book. Something small and delightful. Your border is nice, although it's getting "up there" in complexity and I just find that more complex is bad on DPC. I like the matched pixel stroke, but not everybody does. The title, I think, was a poor choice. It may have hurt you in it's ambiguity and "look" (all those dots and the question mark just aren't "artistic).
The game:
Well, since you have the technicals down just fine and I think you easily met the challenge and have a good feel (except for the title), it's the game you lost out on. The picture does lack "wow". Now "wow" doesn't have to be some crazy cool landscape we've never seen, but a great picture will have "impact". I guess you can look at the top three, including mine. They all had emotional resonance, which this picture lacks. Someone else noted on a thread that sepia was great for this challenge because of the implied emotional feeling. Maybe that's what people were looking for in this challenge. Your picture was very well done and personally I think you got robbed a bit on the score (I don't give out even 7s lightly (I gave out 27 in this challenge with 3 8s and 1 9). If I could assign a score to this shot, I'd give it a 6.4. A great score, but the lack of impact along with the poor title limit it from being a 6.5+.
Photographer found comment helpful.
