The scholar
by MattO

Comment by gaja_tz:
nice contrast, nice idea 8

The scholar
by MattO

Comment by zxaar:
good composition, it reminds me of some russian artist painting.

The scholar
by MattO

Comment by mtadija:
9

The scholar
by MattO

Comment by whiteroom:
great photography!

The scholar
by MattO

Comment by fotomann_forever:
I wish the backdrop had gone completely black but overall a great submission.

out with the old.........
by MattO

Comment by GrayGhost:
Looks like backfocus, and maybe a person would help?

out with the old.........
by MattO

Comment by Gallatin:
Nice shot

out with the old.........
by MattO

Comment by rick13601:
too plain

Transparent Ripples
by MattO

Comment by strangeghost:
Greetings from the Critique Club
by strangeghost

COMPOSITION
An unusual and eye-catching take on the challenge! At first glance you assume the person is underwater (cool!) but then it dawns that you've used a transparent dish of some type (still cool!). The comp is pretty straightforward, mostly centered, with a little perspective distortion and a lot of water distortion. The rippled distortions of the face are interesting and tend to draw attention to the center. The left elbow is chopped much more than the right, and the space at the top gives an overall unbalanced feel.

TECHNIQUE
There are a couple of lighting issues that really weaken the photo IMO. First, the awful reflective glare at the bottom right, and scattered elsewhere, e.g., the forehead, are huge distractions and should have been avoided by more careful lighting and subject placement. The second issue is the white balance, which is off causing there to be no really white areas of the image that seem as though they ought to be white (bottom half of shirt). These are enough to decrease the appeal of a photo in a challenge alone. The profusion of bubbles didn't help you either. Rather than pouring water to achieve your rippled effect, I wonder if you had experimented with dropping drops or simply doing a little gentle sloshing with the container you had suspended over the subject? The bubbles pretty much overpower the ripples for me.

OVERALL IMPACT
Decent visual impact upon initial look, but then the distracting elements begin to take their toll. You're final score of 4.85 most likely reflects the voters concluding as well that this was a photo lacking that punch or pop that DPC challenges seem to demand. Most of your commenters certainly seemed to appreciate your shot - as did I, but many mentioned the same problems I did. This is the type of shot that I believe has great potential if you have the patience to work out the kinks in setup and in post-processing. Eliminate the distractions, perfect the composition - simple and clean, make the colors pop, etc. Good attempt and please keep shooting!

out with the old.........
by MattO

Comment by tpoc:
like the view of what folks have discarded before it gets tossed into the truck.