gorgeuos_browneyes12
by benfica

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

Having a beautiful subject goes a long way towards making excellent studio-type portraits. Unfortunately, I tend to be a little harsh on studio work for several reasons. In this environment, the photographer has complete control over lighting, posing, and composition, so anything that "I", as a critique giver, find out of line is considered a mistake :) Also, keep in mind that a critique is simply an opinion of your work from another person who is biased by their own preferences and experiences...

Your light in this image has created some compositional issues that jump out at me rather quickly. In a studio setting, there is no real reason to not create a lighting situation that shows some amount of detail throughout the entire subject. In this particular image, the directional lighting is strong enough (and probably from only a single direction) that it's creating a lot of loss in shadow detail in the hair and on the face towards the right side of the image. The ear and jewelry managed to find a little light, but that anatomical feature is floating in a sea of darkness. Dark hair on a dark background is almost always improved in appearance by back lighting it with a spot of some sort to create a contrasting edge. It also creates a glow that usually enhances the overall feel of the image. As for improving the lighting in this image, I think you could have salvaged the detail AND maintained the high contrast by using a reflector a few feet away to bounce just a little bit of the light source back into the dark areas of this image.

My personal common theme on offering portrait work into a photo competition such as these here at DPC is rather simple. When you provide an image like this, you need a 'hook' of some sort that intrigues the viewer into falling in love with the image when they have no personal connection with the subject. IMHO, this is a good photo, but it stops at that. What part of this photo should I find compelling in an artistic sense? What makes it above average? What gives it an artistic edge that would make me give it a score in the 8-9-10 range? She's a beautiful girl. I see hundreds of photos of beautiful girls every week. What sets this one apart from the rest?

Just some food for thought :)

Msdoubletrouble
by snaffles

Comment:
Greetings from the Critique Club...

This is a rather difficult challenge to 'critique' because of the simple nature of the challenge itself. You were asked to create a photo that represents another user's 'name' on the site, which really limits you to creativity. Sometimes it's easier to shoot an image and then try to find a username that fits the photo rather than the other way around. Meeting the challenge is a given in this competition, so you can't really get dinged for that. Since not meeting the challenge isn't really possible here, what do you have left to be judged on?

In any challenge, if you spend some time looking around the site, the images that score highest ALWAYS have some sort of special appeal, whether it be visual, emotional, or technical. Your photo scored a 5.3, which is what I consider to be a mediocre result. When photos score in this range, the collective vote is telling you that there is nothing really wrong with your image, but there is also nothing compelling about it. No one found it offensive while no one found it outstanding either. Just over 80% of the votes you received were in the 4-5-6 range which is definitely middle of the road.

As I look at your image, I don't find anything compelling about it. Harsh sunlight is generally not a great time to shoot photos of anything because of the high contrast it creates. I do find donkeys interesting in general, but you really have to work them to get intriguing images. The comments you received in this challenge don't really offer you anything either except for the one that mentions the same harsh light situation I suggested in this critique. If these two donkeys are truly what you set out to photograph for this challenge, you might have fared better by visiting them early in the morning or late in the afternoon where some shade or overcast weather conditions could have provided a more inviting light situation for your camera. You might have also tried to coax them closer to you where you could fill the frame with their faces and create a higher overall impact rather than just having the two of them standing in in a bare spot in their landscape.

Photography, in a serious sense, is a game of time and patience. You need a lot of both to consistently create images that inspire awe and wonder :)

Keep working hard at it :)

The New Bean Town
by tpbremer

Comment:
Excellent stuff :) There are so many different and excellent opportunities at this spot... I hope to make it back to Chicago sometime in the future and spend several hours during the day and at night here.... beautiful abstract... 10 and +fav...

HOPE HAS ARRIVED : Saghakan Slum, Tacloban, Philippines
by hotpasta

Comment:
This is a phenomenal photograph. I can only imagine what it would be like to do this sort of missionary work, but I bet it would be life-changing, to say the least. I read your comments on the image, and this is one of those images where your crop and technical factors don't really matter so much. What's in the image speaks much louder than its presentation. Excellent work :)

Significant Moments: Learning to Swim!
by Paul

Comment:
"Is it the best image I have taken? Not even close; does it capture a slice of life I'm happy to share - Yes it does. "

I wish more people looked at photography for this reason :)

Boys Will Be Boys
by smellyfish1002

Comment:
This reminds me of my childhood just by looking at this photo. I was that boy every day. I came home looking like this on so many occasions that I can't count them all. The look on his face also resembles mine when I looked at my mother with no accepted explanation for why I looked this way :) This is also a very nicely executed black and white. I love the warmth of the tone you chose rather than just a simple cold black and white. That warmth works nicely with the theme of playing outdoors in the heat of the summer where this look could have originated on any given day :) Great photo...

Chaise Pet.
by Dan_Cottle

Comment:
I don't really know how to describe how much and why I love this photograph. It's very well executed and the black and white choice you made works with significant strength. I think one element that intrigues me as much as anything is how this diverse collection of pets posing for a studio portrait creates a sense of family through personification. If these were my pets, I'd have a 16x20 print of this photo matted and framed hanging on a wall in my home somewhere for sure. Excellent work :)

Wonky Goggles
by Stonefinger

Comment:
I really love this photo. It's one of my few favorites in this challenge. This is the kind of photo I wish I had of myself when I was a kid. When I was young, my parents put a good bit of effort into shooting super-8 movies, which are a thing of the past now, but they did transfer them manually to VHS tapes a long time ago, and since then, I have converted those to DVD so they will hopefully live a little longer. I hope this child gets to look back on this photo in 20... 40... and even 60 or 80 years down the road and realize how nice it was to have someone interested in pointing a camera at him :) +fav

Significant Moments: Learning to Swim!
by Paul

Comment:
Wonderful shot :) This reminds me how much I want an underwater housing for my camera... This is the kind of photo that provides precious memories years down the road. It's more than just a photo of the child... it speaks about the child and tells me something more than just what he looks like. A definite 10 from me...

Colored Parchment
by lpatrick

Comment:
This photograph is quite compelling. The combination of color and texture blends nicely with the shadow and highlight detail to build an excellent modernist abstract. This is the type of photo that I would spend several hours digging through my mind for a more fitting title though... Your title describes the image obviously, but when you look deeper into a photo like this, you can see more than is actually there. Titles are often difficult :) At any rate, this is one of my favorites in this challenge and I hope it does well.... great work :) +fav