The Lookout
by jhomrighaus

Comment by h2:
your focus is on the flowers behind the finch, not on the finch itself. otherwise very nice shot, love the complementary colors here.
If you can, get a little closer and use a slightly smaller aperture (even if that means you may have to go to 1/200, that should be short enough in most cases.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by eschelar:
I have no idea what is wrong with people's brains. But I am a bit grumpy today.

Yes there's a color cast on it.

It is called UNITY or THEME.

I wonder if people who have an issue with this picture vote exclusively 1 on challenges such as 'black and white in color', 'duotone' and 'soft focus'...

I was one of your 8 10's.

I appreciated the fact that because of the unity of color, distracting elements are greatly reduced and the gentle warm color of the dog is highlighted by the fact that we would probably expect the background to contain many other colors subconsciously, but the absence of these works to build a theme and even contributes to the mood.

Some of the comments here make me want to slap some people upside the head.

The scores however should sit as they do. They represent a 1-week snapshot of peoples reactions to the pic. Don't confuse score with value of the pic. The two are wholly unrelated. DPC is a _public_ contest with a short voting period and this particular one had no theme to give context to the wide variety of styles of image in the challenge.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by jhomrighaus:

Originally posted by marcusvdt: It has noise in the nose indeed. Hope you invest on glasses.

What a rude and non helpful comment.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by marcusvdt:
It has noise in the nose indeed. Hope you invest on glasses.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by salmiakki:
Jason, came across your thread about this shot. Some thoughts.

You say it does not have a colour cast on your calibrated monitor. OK that's fine and dandy, but based on the comments you have received, to many of the voters it does. Perception is reality, if most people looking at this shot think that it does, then it does and so you have received scores that reflect that. You don't have to agree with people, but accept that this is what others are seeing and understand it maybe why you received lower votes.

I also have a calibrated monitor and to me this looks underexposed (and my monitor tends to be quite bright) and distinctly unnatural in colour. Look at the histogram and you will see it is underexposed.

Add to the equation that not everyone likes pet shots or borders etc etc and you should have a better idea of why the score distribution is the way it is. As Ecce Signum said I would question more why there were so many higher scores than lower ones. I think it finished just a bit higher than I would have expected it to.

At the end of the day, if you really love this and it means a lot to you, does it matter what the rest of us think? Because it really shouldn't. Print it, frame it and hang it on the wall and forget about the rest.

Message edited by author 2009-03-19 02:14:20.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by Nobody:
I like dogs, and I like the concept of this shot. I have to agree with the others though, that the color cast is a bit off. My guess is you took the photo under normal incandescent lights. It has that tungsten glow.. And yes - I have a Huey calibrate my monitor.

I took a very quick stab at rebalancing the light on the 2nd example you posted.

My quick adjustement vs. your posting

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by jhomrighaus:

Originally posted by love: I would suggest adjusting the white balance.. it's just too yellow everywhere not just on the dog. I don't mind the grain (in fact I like grain) and all the other complaints - not an issue to me. The main complaint I would have is the color and I would have given this a 5.

It is adjusted, the dog is this color, the floor is this color, the lights in the kitchen are soft white floods, the camera was white balanced before shooting. Let me see if I can find the original to post up.

Here is another shot taken at the same time for comparison.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by jhomrighaus:
dupe


Message edited by author 2009-03-18 20:17:58.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by love:
I would suggest adjusting the white balance.. it's just too yellow everywhere not just on the dog. I don't mind the grain (in fact I like grain) and all the other complaints - not an issue to me. The main complaint I would have is the color and I would have given this a 5.

Morgan
by jhomrighaus

Comment by loseme:
Great expression and composition. Nice soft tones.