Parallelby
meo729Comment by amandalore: Ok...
Initial thoughts: neat image with a different perspective, definitely meets the challenge; however, DPCers like to see dramatic looks or some kind of human element, or something to try and strike the coveted "wow" factor. With this pic, you're left to create that with shadows and highlights
Subject & background: well, there's not much background, but the subject is a fairly common one that I think you've made stand out a bit more by using a twist on the angle
Angle, framing & composition: this was hit or miss for your voters, I think it's a tossup as to whether a voter will like this or not, but I don't think that the tilted framing did too much "harm" to your score. The photo does seem balanced in its composition, which is a plus
Focus, clarity & DOF: it seems that your photo is focused well enough, but there is not enough contrast to really bring that out, so at a glance, it seems soft, your DOF also seems about right, but again, only when you really look
Lighting & exposure: these look right to me also, you might have tried waiting until the light was more harsh to add some interest, but I think this is good enough to work with
Post processing: Here is where I think the problem came, you earned a pretty good score, but with a little different processing, I think you could have bumped this photo up just a bit
now, I have been using the desat tool to convert my photos to B&W and then try to bump the contrast, but I've just learned a better way to do it. Go to adjustments -> gradient map -> and choose the black to white one (you may need to click reverse), then if you click on the gradient color inside the rectangle box that shows you which one you chose, it will bring up another tool box where you can mess around with the sliders. I've noticed that this produces a look with much more contrast and interest.
Overall, my opinion: I think that the tracks seem to look like a plain background w/o a subject. Try messing with the contrast or gradient mapping to create a more dramatic effect where the tracks can stand alone by themselves... (I've also heard Rikki talk about using channel mixer, or seletive channel or something, I can't remember the name, to turn his photos to B&W, if you want to look that up too)
Let me know if you do a re-edit, I'd like to see... also, I hope this was somewhat helpful, If you'd like more specifics, feel free to contact me again and I'll try my best to look a little deeper, lol
Cheers! Amanda
