ARORA of the FIREby
FocusPointComment by atupdate: Hello from the Critique Club.
Well Leo, this is the second image of yours I've had the privilege of critiquing. I didn't vote in this challenge, so this is the first opportunity I've had to view your image. On a personal level I love it. The flow lines of the flame truly does remind me of the one and only time I saw the Northern Lights in person.
As for the Fire II challenge, by reading the comments left during the challenge, it is easy to see that those who took the time to study the photo caught your connection to the Northern Lights. However, for some, they did have to read the title to make that connection. As you are probably aware, if they have to read the title, then you probably won't score that well. Plus, your scored suffered from the lack of the infamous DPC wow factor.
On the technical side, the noise and blurriness of the flame effectively creates the feel of the Northern Lights. However, there is a little too much negative space in this image. If you intersect the flames with the right and left border of the image and remove about 2/3 of the dark area at the top, the red portion of the flame become a very strong focal point in the image. Interestingly enough, if you rotate the image 180 degrees with the suggested cropping and bump up the green saturation just a little, the remaining dark area takes on the look of pine trees and the flame really does look like the northern lights behind them. The trouble is, if you submitted an image with my suggestions for this challenge, the voters wouldn't have made the connection to Fire and your score would have suffered from the DNMC crowd.
You took a very simple everyday item and made an image with a lot of artistic potential. I think Imay borrow your idea and give it a try for myself if you don't mind.
Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding this critique.
Tim
Photographer found comment helpful.
