A Very Special Cat: Siamese Kaomaneeby
pla2Comment by Artifacts: Positives:
Pink color cast works well. Overall general image quality is good. Directing the viewer to the cat's eyes using shallow DOF is nice.
Technicals:
Lacks under/over exposed areas (You'd be how surprised how often high scoring images at DPC have them). Lighting, though not defective, does not add much viewer interest. Composition is OK. Image is a little soft perhaps by design but does not necessary add much to the composition.
The challenge:
As far as meeting the challenge is concerned, this meets it. This one is a little ununsual as challenges go but an unique and rare animal fits the bill.
There are a couple other things about it, though that would affect it in scoring. Domesticated animals typically don't do well in challenges. Post processing to add a color cast as appears in this case is sometimes voted lower.
Possibly... just possibly some voters thought that you adjusted the color of the cat's eyes to be different colors. Whether you did or did not does not matter, the image might appear to be doctored for effect by some voters and they will vote it lower as a result.
Suggestions:
You might consider backing off on the pink color casting to make it slightly more subtle. Post process this image for more dramatic highlighting of your main subject for greater impact. OR add lighting your main subject in ways to engage the viewer. Either would make a huge difference in score. Perhaps posing the animal in other perspectives would also add more viewer interest.
I suspect that you were counting on the unusual nature of your subject for it's impact. But if viewers think that the image is unusual because of post processing the truth does not matter... they will vote it lower anyway. Photography is a purely visual medium.
Photographer found comment helpful.
