The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by eckoe:
Yep, your thread threw me here...

I feel bad, first because I didn't actually vote on your image, it was on my screen, and I got pulled from my desk until just after voting closed. But here's my written thought process on it.

The subject itself, of the girl holding fire on snow, is awesome, I think there were some distractions however. Namely the girls behind are just not seperated out enough, a slightly smaller DOF may have helped that. I don't know the DOF from it, so can't help you there, but it would have helped the seperation.

I didn't like the desat, I don't think it gained enough from it to really make it pop. I think that if the desat had been everything but the fire, that might have helped. I'm admittedly not in the desat friendly club. It was a very good job of desat, but didn't really like it.

The fire crowd was very good, so I wouldn't feel bad about the score itself, there's just alot of stuff higher in the smaller crowd.

My final score, would have been about a 7.

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by Artyste:
From your thread, here's my take:

#1 - Selective Desat/blur Unless it is done really well, very subtly, and has a strong reason (other than to simply differentiate your subject from a cluttered background), it's going to score poorly. Your shot was, quite simply, none of these things. Yes, I understand that not every shot can be taken with the subject against a non-cluttered background, but there are things that can be done to minimize such things. As for the technicals.. they are done pretty well, but they are still pretty glaring. People notice that it's fake. I certainly did, and that's a sure way to a 5 (or 4)

#2 - Subject. People wanted to see fire. You have a tiny flame that is pretty much obliterated by the rest of the photo. I suspect that for many, it's a weak connection to the challenge, and probably screams "shoehorn!".. no matter how unintentionally.

#3 - Overall Pop. There really isn't one. What is there because of your processing is actually taken away by.. your processing. It's too noticeable, and the only real pop you have going here is the fact that your subject is the only one in color. It's simply not enough.

Be thankful you got as many 6s as you did, and that there weren't more 4s. As it is.. most people gave you the benefit of the doubt and gave you a mid line score. I would have probably done the same, had I voted.

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by LucidLotus:
Great image. I like the choice of selective desaturation, really makes your subject stand out. The image is very crisp and clean and the expression on the girl's face is excellent, very emotive. Obviously meets the challenge. The few nitpics I have is the arms look overly processed a bit, particularly in the bicep area to me, sort of soft and slightly blurred. I also wish I could see more of the girl's face, especially with that happy look she has. Quite lovely. I gave 6

Peas in the Middle East
by Rebecca

Comment by Elvis_L:
nice play one words. perhaps a different angle and the peas making a peace sign would have helped

Peas in the Middle East
by Rebecca

Comment by scalvert:
Interesting idea, but you needed a bigger globe or map to pull it off IMO. At this scale, the peas are too big to form a neat symbol.

Peas in the Middle East
by Rebecca

Comment by onar:
I give you 10 for the message I hope to hear you somebody

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by Loki:
Isn't that an oxymoron like jumbo-shrimp?

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by Nuzzer:
Nice desat effect - it makes this image better than the fire element makes it

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by cryingdragon:
I guess there is a snowball's chance in Hell

The Flaming Snowball
by Rebecca

Comment by NovaTiger:
Not sure why you chose selective desat for this one. The fire itself loses a lot of emphasis in this shot, I feel.