No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by BrianR:
Laura I keep coming in to look at your photos, because I believe you are very good and will soon hit the button of excellence.I cropped your photo after I read the comments,this may have overcome them.If you do not like me doing this just PM me and let me know.[thumb]734759[/thumb]

All Work and No Play Makes Laura a Dull Girl
by Purple_Girl

Comment by stphq:
i was very surpirsed also that nobody got your shining refference but like another poster said, maybe you have to be into horror movies,,, but as movies go in general this one is pretty wellknown to most eh

No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by nothx:
I feel bad for her... she'd be much warmer if she plugged that heater in. :(

She has a great expression, the rain on the window helps with the gloomy feel of desperation. If I had to reshoot this, I think the unplugged heater makes the image look staged. And if there's going to be a shadow on the wall, maybe including the light source in the pic would help (like a cheap lamp with no shade for example). Personally, I think getting in closer and using only the natural light from the window to illuminate her right side would have made this a very powerful shot. Let the rest fall to shadows. Just something to consider.

Beautiful Death
by Purple_Girl

Comment by rlewis:
I gave your image a 5. The image struck me as being very busy, the background is a little too bright relative to the butterfly and though it probably has very sharp focus on the eye, the large f stop gave you a shallow depth of field that caused you to loose focus on the wings and the body. And, the wings appear a bit washed out....I would too if I were dead

No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by Jessi:
Hello hello!! :):)

I like the idea behind this and her expression conveys it really well!

There are a couple of technical glitches tho that really distract.

The composition feels uncomfortable, which can be effective sometimes but it definitely isn't all the time, and in my opinion it detracts from this image. To the left is something interesting -- what's outside the window? To the right is boring -- an AC unit. But we're seeing more of the left than we are of the right.
The lighting is pretty obviously on-camera flash. There's not a whole lot that you can do about it unless you want to buy PocketWizards (about $200-$300US), use really long exposures and a point-and-shoot on a timer (lol this is totally trial and error, but incredibly fun to experiment with), or use available light. For this type of shot, you should try to use every single speck of available light -- even buy white foamboard and set it opposite the window. You're using an advanced P&S, right? So you don't really have the option of increasing the ISO without getting a ton of grain, but shoot on Manual and open the aperture wide. Get your model to hold really really still and use a longer (1/20, 1/3, 1/2, etc) shutter speed.

And...that's about it.

The most distracting thing, although not it's technical, is the fact that the window with the rain is sharper than her face. It draws my attention away instantly.

No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by Rino63:
no pension with the parquet on the pavement?

Rice Paper Butterfly
by Purple_Girl

Comment by SaraR:
What a wonderful butterfly! Here in England I have seen so few this summer, so it is lovely seeing photos of them! i appreciate the way you have included the plant to give context, but in this instance, I do feel that the composition could be strengthened by cropping a little more from the top.

No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by ShutterPug:
I think I see what you were going for: too poor to be able to plug in the heater. What doesn't fit is why she would be sitting in a corner by a window looking at the cold rain. Seems to me she would be seeking out the warmest part of the house. Aside form that, technicals are okay. Focus is good. Color cast gives the viewer the feeling of how cold the woman is. The lighting could have been better as the shadow is distracting.

No Pension
by Purple_Girl

Comment by Anachronite:
looks staged

Beautiful Death
by Purple_Girl

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
This didn't come up for me in voting. I like it. Good use of DOF (which is harder to achieve on a small sensor camera), good color and detail, and a very good twist on a common subject. Love the title, btw. My nitpick on this one is that I may have not cropped it so centered. I'm surprised at the low 5 it averaged, but this was a low averaging challenge for some reason. If it had come up in voting, I think I would have given it a 6. If you'd cropped it differently and maybe been able to coax more detail out of the wings, I might call it a 7.