Beauty is in the eye of the bee-holderby
jonfrommkComment by Artifacts: Positives:
Technicals are generally good, nice capture of the bee facing the camera. As an unprocesed image it is good.
This is an EXCELLENT image. It suffered more from ruleset limitations than anything else.
Technicals:
Sharpness excellent and it is focused beatifully on the bees "face". There are two important technical defects. One is the lack of detail in Bees dark "face". The other is that the background needs noise reduction. Yes, I realize that you had no control over either issue because the challenge was minimal. The centered framing was dictated by the nature of the challenge ruleset as well.
The Challenge:
Obviously meets the challenge.
I gave this image an 8. The group gave it a 5.7. Basically that means I agreed with the group assessment. That is because 5.7 is normally a slightly above average score for an image given by the group and 8 is an above average score from me. The overall DPC average score given in all challenges is just under 5.4. My average score given is 7. The group average for this challenge was 5.7 which is some .3+ points higher than normal. Apparently the group felt the quality of submissions in this challenge was above average.
Warning! Personal opinion inserted here.
Something I feel important is to evaluate an image on its own merit. It has to be able to stand on its own long after the challenge topic and rules are forgotten. Therefore, the challenge topic and the ruleset used to craft it are of lesser importance in my personal assessments of images than meeting the challenge or accounting for the ruleset used. I will, however, make accounting for those if it results in a higher score.
End of Warning
Suggestions:
This would make an excellent print. Abandon the ruleset and process this image. Consider fixing both the noise problem and the brightness issue on the bee's "face", then crop it closer offsetting the bee to the lower left side of the frame. That will leave more brightness in the background that will make the bee stand out more.
Photographer found comment helpful.
