The Universe in a Leafby
randomcheeseComment by Garry: *** Critique Club ***
Hi Scott, this is a critique from the CC. I see that you're a relatively new member to DPC, so welcome!
As will all things, opinions are subjective and personal, so please take this critique with a grain of salt. Hopefully it will be a learning experience for us both.
For the challenge of Outdoor Macro, you selected an interesting subject in a decaying leaf. I say interesting, because decaying leaves often have a lot of character to them, like worn leather shoes. They have holes, tears, rough edges etc. This character makes for an interesting subject.
While you've selected a great subject, I do feel that your choice of processing has "alienated" the voter mass somewhat. Not that I think what you did was wrong (I do like unconventional processing myself), merely that I feel I have a good feel of what is generally desired by the DPC crowd. The decision to neither for a nice colorful image nor a B&W, but instead a "hybrid" of the two makes the image feel very disjointed and creates an uncomfortable sensation in that what the viewer sees is very disparate from what they expect to see. I personally would've selected one method or the other. Selective desaturation is a great technique to highlight a particular point in the image to bring the viewers attention to. In your image, the desat is sporadic and seems to follow no apparent purpose. Thus a sensation of disjointedness.
Otherwise, the image seems a little flat on lighting -- the tonal range is pretty small so lacks the dynamic punch of a well lit leaf.
These two elements I think affected the voters, resulting in your score of ~5.
Hope this critique has helped some. Feel free to PM me to discuss any of my ideas/thoughts.
Kind regards
Garry
Photographer found comment helpful.
