The beauty of uncertainty
by snaffles

Comment by cynthiann:
Lovely butterfly, just a little hard to the the detail in the black portions. Background seems a little crowded too. Really tough shot, but you did well.

The beauty of uncertainty
by snaffles

Comment by fuzzyt:
Probably the best butterfly shot in the challenge. Lighting is a bit flat IMO.

Betty Page's legs?
by snaffles

Comment by Mark-A:
Greetings from the Critique Club :)

Hi Susan!

Composition:

I like the composition of this shot, it flows nicely and feels complete, as placement of the legs goes I wouldn't change a thing (although I might be inclined to leave a tad more room either side). Your lights positioning however I would change and I would also change your distance from the background to remove the shadows, I'd have placed the main light high camera right and the fill light also fairly high on axis to the camera or slightly left to soften any visible shadows that remained. My reasoning is that I find the shadows distracting from the overall composition.

Technicals:

Considering you obviously used lights of some form on this shot the settings confuse me somewhat, unless you used constant lighting of the table lamp variety I am not sure why you pushed the ISO and had such a slow shutter. I'd be interested to see the original of this to see what it looked like out the camera.

Post-Processing:

I have a feeling I know the kind of look you might have been going for, I've seen this sort of processing on post cards before (normally cheeky images like this) so I will state the following about the PP from a DPC entry perspective only. I think you intentionally hit the contrast to extreme and also the sharpening for the above reasons.

So from a DPC stand point, I think to the voters this would look like an image that has serious sharpening issues, most would also likely look at the banding in the tights (not the legs! :p sorry couldn't resist) and think of it as a processing error rather than give you the benefit of the doubt that you were perhaps going for this look.

My Opinion:

I actually really like this shot (you have great legs!) if you were further from the backdrop and had lit slightly more evenly (to lose the shadows) I think this would make an awesome retro pinup shot that would look stunning poster sized on a wall - I also think that had these two issues been taken care of then the sharpening and contrasts would have worked so much better as the overall look would be MUCH cleaner. Great legs, great pose lets see a re-dux of it soon with those issues ironed out :)

Hope this was of some use, should you wish to discuss any part of the critique further please feel free to PM me.

Good luck in future challenges!

Mark

The beauty of uncertainty
by snaffles

Comment by teranb:
gorgeous

Betty Page's legs?
by snaffles

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
The classic pinup girl, often copied. Somehow I don't think these are really her legs, considering she passed away recently. Very nice pinup pic nonetheless. Whose legs ARE they? I suppose I will know in a few days.

Betty Page's legs?
by snaffles

Comment by Siggav:
For me the contrast is way too high. The over all effect is like a badly scanned ink drawing. This is both in the boots and in the stockings. Those pixels where the colour goes into full black really stand out and not in a good way.

I know your processing of the photo was clearly done with a purpose in mind but the overall result I see is a graphic element rather than a photo. It's a fine line to tread and I think you went on the wrong side of it this time around.

The pose of the legs is good though.

Betty Page's legs?
by snaffles

Comment by Ja-9:
this appears to be over sharpened, but I can see where you used the blue tones...your shadows are great

Betty Page's legs?
by snaffles

Comment by love:
wish the shadows weren't so distracting..

Catch a licking
by snaffles

Comment by salmiakki:
Greetings from the Critique Club

Susan, I did a little test this morning to see if yours was the first one in the queue again, and sure enough, 3 mins after rollover I selected a new image to critique and I got yours! You must always be the first one to check the box :)

Sorry this didn't score a bit higher than it did. Composition is good, colours are good, lighting is good. I think you are hurting a bit due to the chainlink/limitations of your lens (I have the same one and I know it's not so great at the long end). The wolves are just not quite sharp enough (I know I like blur, but that's not quite the same as out of focus). Also, I think honestly, the text is hurting you a bit here. I can understand you using white, as it matches quite well the fur of the wolf, but the text at the bottom sort of blends into the leg. As this was for an advert, I also think the font used is not really the best one you could have used.

Sorry it didn't do a bit better.

Catch a licking
by snaffles

Comment by Blackbox:
An awesome capture but to me, it looks like your stretching the limits of your lens.