Used and Denied
by viljoendale

Comment by Tammer:
At first, I thought perhaps you added the DENIED text. Since your photo has been validated, I think maybe someone else wondered the same thing. I like your concept, but for me, it's the choice of background color that made me give you a lower score. I wonder how this would have looked with a darker background instead?

Used and Denied
by viljoendale

Comment by echo54:
nice

Used and Denied
by viljoendale

Comment by sevilduvarci:
i liked the idea in this one..

Used and Denied
by viljoendale

Comment by messerschmitt:
i really like the texture of the black passport and the backdrop

Shells
by viljoendale

Comment by CEJ:
Hello from the Critique Club!

I have studied your image and have the following to offer:

Composition/perspective - in my opinion you would have been just as strong with only the larger of the two shells in the image. The smaller one is sort of a distraction since the larger one dominates the image. It appears as though you were directly above the subject with only a slight angle ot the shot. This could be improved by slightly lowering your angle to the subject. A few things would have resulted - the flash reflection would be more distributed and not so harsh and the shadows would be a lot softer. As is, the hard dark shadows take away from the presentation. Your focus is exceptional though allowing so much of the textures and details of the shell surfaces come through.

Color - in a light on white I would not expect to see a lot of color. The small splashes of color in the large subject are just enough and well defined. The background tends to fade into gray, another aspect that would have been helped with different camera placement.

Lighting - I think this is the weakest aspect of the image. It is very harsh and bright. Especially bottom center. This appears to be fulll reflection of the flash. Perhaps using an off camera light source lower to the subject and maybe at a 45 and bouncing your flash to light the background would have worked better. Portions of the shell appear on the verge of being blown out and in a couple small areas you have lost all detail.

Challenge requirements - this meets the light on white requirements nicely. I think where it fails is in the lighting as stated above. This turns your background gray and makes your subject appear overbearing.

Overall/my opinion - with only the larger shell in the frame it would have been just as strong an image...in other words, you did not need the smaller shell. The larger one has a nice shape, lots of texture and offers the only color making the smaller one redundant. Better control of lighting and camera placement to the subject would have helped a lot. The shot does demonstrate a good creative thought process, a little work on the set-up and presentation and it moves right up the scale.

Used and Denied
by viljoendale

Comment by tonyv:
Gibun? Are they sending you home?

Shells
by viljoendale

Comment by popdeepop:
The background is too prominent.

Shells
by viljoendale

Comment by briantammy:
cool shells but i don't like the shadows.

Shells
by viljoendale

Comment by wee_ag:
The flash makes the image to 'harsh' I would have set it on a tripod and let the ambiant light light up the scene, would have made a nicer 'softer' image.

Shells
by viljoendale

Comment by Tammer:
Nice shells. I think a softer lighting would improve this and maybe reducing the blue saturation overall. Good idea though.