Into The Light......
by sailjo

Comment by fotomann_forever:
::: Greetings from Critique Club :::

Hi, as requested, here is an indepth critique of your submission.

First Impression - the most important one:
Too shallow DoF and blown highlights hurt what could have been a pretty decent photo.

Composition:
Compositionally, not too bad, I most often like the diagonal cutting of a photo. This one though I think I'd like to see the flower head down in the bottom left corner of the picture. With less stem and more negative space, I think you'd have a much stronger photo.

Subject:
It stands out well from the background, although I think the flower head (the main subject) should be more in focus.

Technical (Color, focus, and light):
Color is a bit warm. I suggest a custom white balance for working under lights.
Focus: As I mentioned earlier the DoF is a bit shallow for my taste. However, this DoF would work if you had focused the camera on the flower and then recomposed the shot.
Light: A bit harsh and it's blowing some of the highlights.

To grow its vote?:
Generally flower shots have to be excellent to score well at DPC. Voters don't treat flowere kindly around here :-( Bad voters! LOL Really though a few technical issues here could help you out a bit.

Summary:
Not bad for your third challenge here. Keep on shooting and you will definitely see better scores.

Hope to see more from you soon,
Leroy

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by kari1:
This is a small image, maximising to 640 on the long side would really help this image with creating a better impact for the viewer.

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by ihartnv9000:
glow in the dark?

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by jfwolpert:
i wish this was bigger it is very nice

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by FocusPoint:
Simple, and nice :)

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by IreneM:
This looks really nice, I wish it was bigger tho.

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by sherpet:
Great composition, and a great shot.

Unfurled.......
by sailjo

Comment by Troutbear:
Simple, cool.

Into The Light......
by sailjo

Comment by tedward:
Nice effect, but I get all sorts of criticism when my pictures are blurry. . .

225 AMPS
by sailjo

Comment by yanko:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Technicals:
The lighting is sufficient to see the subject but doesn't do more than that.

Subject/composition:
Good choice in subject, however I feel the central theme of this challenge isn't the real focal point here. It's more about this person working in his environment more so than depicting "heat".

The composition is ok but like the lighting it doesn't do anything beyond just displaying the subject.

Suggestions for Improvement:
The lighting and composition are two areas where a lot of creativity can come in. In terms of the composition, I would see about shooting from a lower angle and facing more toward his right side rather than straight on. This should give the subject a larger presence in the frame and appear more powerful, which would go well with someone welding steel. If you can zoom in closer that would also help. The main area of interest here is that welder's mask and the sparks so the tighter you can make the crop the better especially given that busy background.

As for the lighting I think you have too much in the shot. I would try to utilize just the light coming from the sparks and eliminate as much ambient light as possible. The best way to do that is to shoot with a faster shutter speed and smaller aperture setting than what you used. I would suggest shooting in manual mode to set both the shutter speed and aperture manually if possible. Having less light in the scene will keep alot of that busy background in the dark and bring the focus squarely on the welding.

Message edited by author 2006-06-04 02:58:12.