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cutlassdude70Comment by Louis: Wow... powerfully emotive for me, and great lighting choices. I love it. I like the focus on the needle tip, despite the way the candle pulls our attention to the lower right. I keep looking back and forth, then sometimes back at the guy's face. That really drives the message of the photograph home for me. The paraphernalia are a fine addition, and give us a cluttered messy impression to go with his clothes and the cap over hs eyes. Blue light is a great decision, and the long shadows and the deep contrast make the mood. Depth of field is very effective.
It's not gritty enough. I appreciate that you didn't use your usual workflow so that it could "look as gritty as possible", but there's not enough. I think this is one picture that would really benefit from some added noise. I would have really made this noisy, and, despite how great the colours are, I may have chosen duotone to enhance the effect. If it were advanced editing, I may also have added additional noise on the table and drug stuff via a gradient masking layer. And, if it were not a challenge at all, I would have added a texture layer of some kind using overlay or darken to hit the viewer over the head with it all. (I know not everyone likes that technique, but it really enhances certain photos in my opinion.)
I think it scored lower only because of voters' weak stomachs. In my view, this is a superior photograph. Really awesome, congratulations.
Photographer found comment helpful.
