The Ugliest Ornaments.... EVERby
ahazeComment by Harz_Joerg: Greetings from the Critique Club
Initial thoughts/My opinion
Ugly? No. Tacky, yes (still not sure about the term tacky though). Nicely composed, a little on the dark side.
Content/Composition
I believe your submission would have done way better with a different title. When I saw the image during voting I was really amazed about the title and thought "Our 7 years old would love to have our tree only made up with these dolls". So to me the title came out a little harsh. And your story behind these ornaments tell me that you don't see them as soooo ugly too.
Of course, the dolls might be the ugliest ornaments given to you by your grandmother, but the voters didn't know.
Coming to the image itself, I have to say that it is nicely composed with the tree as background and the dolls left and right. Only the light in the middle is to bright. You may have avoided this be shining some light from a desk lamp or so onto the dolls, so you could have used a shorter shutter time. This would have also brightened up the whole scene (of course, too bright should be avoided).
I like the green glow on the boy's hair.
Camera work -technically
Focus is set fine, just a little underexposed. Also the white balance seems a little of: the image has an orange cast.
Digital Processing - Technical
The issues exposure and white balance could have been addressed very easily digitally, because the picture quality itself is good enough to withstand some alteration without starting to look digitally overdone.
I thing that a stronger, multiple colour border might have been better for this kind of image too.
Fits the challenge
Of course it does.
Good luck for your further submissions
Photographer found comment helpful.