Maybe it's time we talk about children...by
chimericvisionsComment by lucienaw: (¯`â€Â¢._.â€Â¢[Critique Club]â€Â¢._.â€Â¢Ã‚´Â¯)
Well, I've been looking over and critiquing some of the other entries for the procrastination challenge recently and this is, for the most part, one of the more interesting. I think that you really captured an emotion here, it really makes the viewer of the photograph think, and as 'mpeters' wrote in your comments, the absence of the children is very powerful, if not more so than with them in the shot.
Your execution of the shot looks technically sound, except for the slightly low contrast settings. According to your processes, you toyed with the hue and sat, the tones, and other levels but not the brightness and contrast so much. Just a slightly higher level would have brought out some of the shadows and details bringing your image off of the page and I can say with confidence that doing so would easily land you in the top third of the competition.
The cloud cover works very well, and gives the image a flat lighting that just emphasises the lack of action in the subject (i.e. no children) perfectly. Your choice of black and white added to the shot well, although I feel that perhaps a little colour would have brought it out. If you check the tutorials, there's one on b&w, and it explains how by just adding the tiniest amounts of colour, the image can still look as though on a greyscale, but with emphasis on some of the subjects and a greater depth of field.
Otherwise, despite a slight digression off of the subject of the competition, slightly more post-editing would secure this into the high 5's if not 6's.
Good luck with all future competitions!
.â€Â¢Ã‚´Â¯`â€Â¢->Lucien<-â€Â¢Ã‚´Â¯`â€Â¢.
Photographer found comment helpful.