Positive Reflectionby
tsikakisComment by kteach: Greetings from the Critique Club!
First reaction: Interesting, nice visual layout with the dark line and the grey gradient around the little "reflection". I'm not a huge fan of the negative processing, personally, but contrasted with the regular part, it's interesting. How was this accomplished? Did they really use a mirror? No, probably not... I'd like to think people aren't that disrespectful of the challenge topics. So, how? A photo printed out in a frame? Are the colors all in post processing? If so, I'm not really a fan of those editing tricks, but appreciate the creative idea behind the shot.
After reading your photographer comments: Hmm, not a trick with post processing as far as the coloring... the little picture was printed in negative colors? Not a lot of info there for me to go on. But wait... ISO 800 and shutter speed 6 sec.? Huh?
After reading comments from others: Ok, I too had to go and invert the shot in PS... and WOW! Everything makes sense now. That dark line and the gradient all make sense now. Very simple concept, yet it works well. Unfortunately, voters probably either saw this as confusing (since it looks like a mirror), weren't sure how it was done (a post processing trick?), or were not fond of the negative image (or perhaps a combination) and gave it an average vote, leaving you in the middle of the pack at the end.
Like Melethia said, it's quite impressive that you (or perhaps a model?) held still for that long, and completely mimicked the pose in the picture. This shot would be far less effective with regular lighting, and the light ring really helps this image. Unfortunately, voters probably didn't see how much thought had gone into the lighting during voting.
This is one of those shots that I'm ashamed to say I voted a 5 on during the challenge. It clearly was deserving of a higher vote from me now that I have been able to read your setup and see the complexity of it. Thank you for taking the time to explain (and while I'm glad you answered my questions in your comments after voting was over, putting all of that information in the photographers comments section would be helpful so that people don't need to scroll through the comment section at the bottom)
What to do differently next time to improve? Perhaps the answer is simply, nothing. As long as you're doing photography for yourself and not for a high score, please continue to challenge us voters with unique and creative shots like this one. It is technically well done, interesting to look at and creative. This may not be the "DPC eye candy" that makes the front page, but it's definitely an interesting shot, and a reminder to me to slow down when I'm voting, and maybe even skip over shots like this if I'm in a rush, so I can allow them the time they deserve.
Sorry to make this such a long critique, but I hope you find something in it helpful. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!