senakulo :: old story, reenacted
by blackenedwhite

Comment by Gunnsi:
Comment from a member of your own commenting club :-)
This picture has potential.
What is good?:
1. The subject is good.
2. The model is good, good expression on his face.
3. Cropping is good, leading lines make you look at all the picture.
What could be done better?:
1. Title is not good. I would prefer "Old religion" or something like that.
2. Too much red colour
3. The picture is grainy. It is well possible that you did that on purpose but I think that it would be a lot better without it. Try using NeatImage to take away the grain.
4. To much light on his cheeks.
Overall a good picture that scored IMO to low.

Message edited by author 2006-05-10 20:27:41.

puppy dog slippers after bath time
by blackenedwhite

Comment by Gunnsi:
Comment from a member of your own commenting club :-)
Nice idea to hang your shoes up like this.
What is good in this picture?:
1. Focus is ok
2. Nice colours
What could be better?:
1. Looks as there is a bit to much contrast
2. The "faces" are a bit dark so at first sight you don't see what it is you are looking at.
3. The clouds are a bit blown up, to white. So I can see the trouble you are in, shoes to dark and clouds to bright and you have to apply the same to everything in the picture. In some editing programs you can apply brightness differenely to midtones and other without violating "Basic editing" rules.
Hope this helps something.

Message edited by author 2006-05-10 20:27:21.

senakulo :: old story, reenacted
by blackenedwhite

Comment by Rebecca:
Hello from me via the CTP2 thread!

The color and model's expression are very good. However, here's where things get rough:

The crop is way too tight. The top of the head is cut off, along with most of the body and cross. Particularly the hands. The cross is an important element in the photo, but it's been truncated.

The noise is distracting. I know I tend to add noise when I'm trying to cover up an unsalvageable lack of sharpness, so it makes me wonder why that decision was made unless it's designed to hide a flaw like that. Otherwise, it seems rather unnecessary.

Finally, the biggest reason I think that photos failed in this challenge was that they just did not convey a sense of "old". "Old" needed to be projected as a concept, and that's just not the first thing that pops into my head when I look at this. The model is young. I think of religious pageantry. I don't automatically think "old". Most Western Christian portrayals of the Stations of the Cross will involve a crown of thorns, which is conspicuously missing from the photo. I don't think that Senakulo is very familiar to most of the DPC audience, and anything unfamiliar tends to get voted down.

My only suggestion here, really, is to give more consideration to what the DPC audience is going to want to see. On abstract concepts like "Something Old", make sure the photo screams "OLD!" as loudly as possible.

water coolie
by blackenedwhite

Comment by yanko:
Greetings from your own critique club.

First Impression:
The color and grain is the first thing I notice.

Composition:
The framing of this is good and the negative space was used well.

Subject:
A bit bland. We don't really identify with the subject because what you decided to include in the photo doesn't tell us much. Where is he at? Where is he going? That sort of thing. Also, half his face is not in view so we don't really get a good sense of his expression/emotion he may be experiencing. I know with my candid entry I made a similar mistake.

Technical (Colour and light):
The color is good, which boosts interest. However, the lighting is a bit harsh. I think had this been a b/w image it probably would have felt more appropriate along with the grain. Speaking of which, the grain is probably a lot harder to pull off in a color photo than a b/w or sepia image.

Improvement:
Include more "story" in the shot. If there was a shop nearby or a group of people in the direction he was walking including that would have helped tell a story. Even if those people had nothing to do with him it would place him in better context so we know a little more about this person's life and let imagination go from there.

Summary:
A good take to the challenge. In terms of where this ranked, DPC tends to prefer cleaner images so the grain and the harsh light held this back probably more than anything else. However, don't take that to mean DPC voters are right voting this way. After all it's a site full of photographers who are very picky about certain things, which often times are just trival so just bare that in mind. The most important thing IMO is telling a good story with your photography and everything else is just secondary.

Edited for clarity.

Message edited by author 2006-05-08 21:09:21.

Sinulog Festival
by blackenedwhite

Comment by Lilhoop:
its a lil noisy but still a good pic

Sinulog Festival
by blackenedwhite

Comment by gdanie11:
Good effort. I would have liked to see his face unobstructed...that might have given the viewer some idea as to what he doing with his hands ?

senakulo :: old story, reenacted
by blackenedwhite

Comment by pineapple:
I'm not sure in what conditions you took the photo, but I think it would be possible to get greater clarity especially considering the IS of the lens and speed of shutter used. The scene had great potential for an interesting and high quality photo.

senakulo :: old story, reenacted
by blackenedwhite

Comment by DigiFotoBuddy:
OJ Greatings from your own Critique Club. You didn't have any entry last week, so I am commenting on this one.

Here is what I like about the image.

- Composition
- Expressions

Here some things needs improvement IMO

- Picture is too sharp.
- There are some blown outs on the forehead and the face.
- Most important of all - DNMC (Does not Meet the Challenge). You will see this trend on DPC. You will get low score for DNMC.

Best of luck for your future entries.

Sinulog Festival
by blackenedwhite

Comment by Zigomar:
Nice focus but a bit grainy.

Sinulog Festival
by blackenedwhite

Comment by DefyTime:
Great shot and DoF