Forest Spirit masquerading as Chickareeby
hahn23Comment by strangeghost: Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost
The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.
TECHNIQUE
Focus and sharpness are great. The tonal range seems a bit flat to me though. The picture has an overall gray feeling to it. That's possibly just what it should be, after all, the only real color is the greenery in the background. However, with snow visible in the leafy foreground, that seems like it's where the white point ought to be. Whatever that white is to the right of the squirrel probably would've blown out then, right?
COMPOSITION
Well obviously it's an adorable animal! I have no idea what that reflection is in the eye. It almost has a face-look to it but for the life of me, I can't make it out. Your title seems to imply that it has some connection with your intent but I'm not sure I get the connection. As for fitting the challenge, it's probably a stretch but the voters have the final say on that. Compositionally, I like the mix of sharp leaves around him and gently blurred background. It looks very natural and
in situ.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT
It's a fine shot and one that's generally not easy to acquire, as these animals are pretty twitchy and tend not to sit around long when people are poking around. It's probably not bursting with "wow" to the extent necessary for highly successful DPC shots, but it's definitely nice. The odd reflection in the eye is enough to make me pause and really look closely at what's going on, but doesn't add enough impact to put this pic in the upper crust.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ah, now I see where the reflection came in, but I really question your decision not to post process. Even in basic editing, you could have adjusted your white and dark points and really made this image scream as far as tonal range. It didn't need any sharpening but could have really used a tweak for the colors and brightness. Your commenters, for the most part, liked the shot, but your final score of 5.5 shows that you scored mostly 5's and 6's with the voters. IMO, not bad for this shot for this challenge.
Photographer found comment helpful.
