Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by Paul:
I'm going through the entries, stopping at those images I feel have had the benefit of an unconventional eye and dwelling a little longer to try to see and appreciate what you saw. This is one of those images.

Positives: The directness of this image is staggering! I challenge anybody to pass it by without some form of reaction - it made me laugh out loud. I think you have the lighting just right as is the toning / conversion.

Critical stuff: Great picture to be sure but since Nikolai as given you this wonderful expression, have you delivered on the photographic aspects? Lighting is great but I think your focus is a little off; there are some aspects of the edit I might taken issue with - firstly the background banding.... how did you shoot this? RAW? Did you use the highest possible bit depth throughout the workflow? Also, I think I'd have ben tempted to smooth the skin a little - the conversion has emphasised some of the natural vascular mottling on his chest and arms.

Overall: A great, great image but one which has a couple of minot technical limitations.

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by Anthony_D_Archer:
LOL! Love the facial expression. Nicely captured

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by Ja-9:
that a surprised look if I saw one...cute capture

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by MaryO:
This should be titled, "OMG!" ;-) Very cute expression. I'd crop more on the left, I think, to get him even more off-center.

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by spiritualspatula:
I'm normally not a fan of baby pictures, and have voted them down because I get so sick of them. This isn't the case for yours, however, and I really like this one. Great expression, and the pose is a little bit different from a lot that I see. Nice B/W too.

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by Issus:
The baby looks suitably impressed by your big softbox haha, from that expression, this baby will be a photography when all grown up!

Nikolai
by oskarak

Comment by grahamgator:
Priceless expression.

chaos of the colors
by oskarak

Comment by JulietNN:
Hi from the Critique Club,

You asked for your shot to have an in depth comment from a member of the Critique Club.

I really like the simplicity of this shot, very nice to see.

You did very well on the saturations of colours, the colours themselves, the DOF and the POV. I think what is hurting this though is the blur that you have going on in the front of the shot. Cropping it right up to the in focus dribbles would have been more pleasing to the eye.

Your sharpness is tack sharp, this is a very good shot and one i can see hanging on a wall, well done

chaos of the colors
by oskarak

Comment by dponlyme:
Looking through the challenge entries and thought I'd let you know I really enjoyed your photo... very nice.

chaos of the colors
by oskarak

Comment by ThatChickOverThere:
nice use of shallow dof - great colors!