Grouse
by snaffles

Comment by KarenNfld:
A bit noisy and blurry at the top but still very interesting.

Grouse
by snaffles

Comment by Luchux:
mmmm

Grouse
by snaffles

Comment by bmartuch:
Excellent idea and the colors are great.

Grouse
by snaffles

Comment by annig:
beautiful detils of these feathers and the blur/sharp variations

The Little Match Girl
by snaffles

Comment by dahkota:
If this had been taken "technically DPC perfect" I think you would have lost much of the emotion of the shot. It would be like any of dozens of others of a sad woman's face. In this, the wild colors, the movement, the noise, all add to the story. I get the feeling of the little match girl, her desperation, her shivering, by the techniques you did use. It is not always the case that one wants to take a 'stock' image; this is such a case. So, if you want to score high on DPC, follow the advise of others and take a technically perfect but emotionally distant image. Otherwise, keep doing what feels right for the story. Personally, I like this shot. I like how you did it and what you did. there are a million ways to change it but then it wouldn't be the same. Good luck and keep following your heart!

Coke collector's heaven
by snaffles

Comment by Hipychik:
Ok...That is heaven!

Coke collector's heaven
by snaffles

Comment by SoulMan1978:
$10??? per bottle. I wouldn't want to drink it at that price lol

Coke collector's heaven
by snaffles

Comment by LarsBone:
Alright then.

The Little Match Girl
by snaffles

Comment by alexzen:
Critique Club :)

Well personally I like what you did, and more what you were trying to do. This is outside of the normal DPC 'box', but I commend you for trying. More us need to do this.

I am familiar with this tale and I think you had a great idea. The main issues with this image are technical. First it is almost impossible to get a good image with such low light. Maybe a 5D would have gotten this, but certainly not a Powershot. The high ISO is going to give you LOTs of noise, the color will be shifted, and you will have lots of motion blur. It is not clear which way the face is moving - but it seems to me it moved one way and then the other. So even though there is movement within the image, it is not clear in which direction.

In post processing you could have tried to remove the noise.

I think in order to pull off a shot like this you would really have to increase the lighting significantly which would have allowed you to use a lower ISO and faster shutter. If I were doing this I would have used artificial light shining up onto the face to emulate the match light. And then used enough matches to preserve the effect that it was the matches that made all that light.

You can over expose (without burning out highlights) and get a sharper image with less noise, and then use levels and/or brightness to reduce the brightness of the image to get the dark effect that you wanted. You would then have a cleaner image, less motion blur. This would take some experimentation with a flashlight or other highly focused light.

But starting with such low light, most all of your options were gone.

Keep trying. Good concept.

Please feel free to use the PM system if you have questions or comments.

Ken
alexzen

Coke collector's heaven
by snaffles

Comment by FocusPoint:
I even didn't know there was a "coke collector" but I think there is somebody collecting everything in this world. I like this as a photo, nice composition, colors... sharp... I am not sure about the "Heavenly feelings" though.