Scratched Surfaceby
metaphoxComment by wee_ag: Greetings from the Critique Club! :)
Technical Aspects:
From a technical standpoint I think the shot is well done. You have a great contrast between your lights and darks, which is the key in B&W photography and often hard to get.
You did a great job capturing the light poles without letting them overpower and blow-out the shot. They add a nice mood to the photograph.
The image is nice and sharp and it looks like you used a longer shutter speed (you have ‘20’, is that 20 seconds?) which gives the water and the picture an overall ‘smooth’ feel.
Artistic Aspects:
Artistically this photo really tells a story for me. I’m drawn into the image for some reason and it captivates me. And makes me wonder what those lines in the water (?) are.
The mood set by the black and white plays out much better than the color version would have. Good decision to go with b&w
The only issue that I had with the shot was it didn’t really capture the reflection aspect of the Challenge as much as I would like.
The bland rock in the foreground is a bit of a distraction that pulls attention away from the wonderful play of light and dark in the center and it sits in the way of the reflection for which the image was entered.
I would love to have seen the reflection a bit more the focus since that was the aim of the challenge.
Overall:
This was one of my favorite images from the challenge. A good black & white composition is a difficult shot and I think you pulled it off masterfully! The two downfalls: that darn rock and I had to look back at the challenge title to be reminded of what it was entered for, the reflection was not the first thing that grabbed my attention. Taken apart from the challenge, the image stands up well on its own. Well done!
And what ARE those streaks?....
- Brian
Photographer found comment helpful.