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Dapper Duo
Dapper Duo
yakatme


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Singled-Out (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR DG IF-ED
Location: Art Deco Festival, South Beach, Miami
Date: Jan 14, 2006
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/400
Galleries: Candid, Animals
Date Uploaded: Jan 15, 2006

This was a difficult challenge. The situations that I found myself in were, at times, very uncomfortable, expecially while photographing gangs and a crowd of mostly illegal aliens. I took almost 500 pictures and and narrowed the field down to five choices to enter. This one could have been better if the guy hadn't seen me taking his picture. Once he did, he wouldn't stop looking into the camera and posing for me. I wanted to capture his constant grimace and lazy eye for the character.
To meet the challenge description as close as possible I wanted to blur the crowd using only "minimal depth-of-field", not gaussian blur. To accomplish this, I used my zoom lense and set the aperture to f/2.8.

Statistics
Place: 34 out of 109
Avg (all users): 5.7769
Avg (commenters): 7.1250
Avg (participants): 5.3594
Avg (non-participants): 5.9198
Views since voting: 1519
Views during voting: 376
Votes: 251
Comments: 14
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
01/28/2006 08:08:51 PM
::: Greetings from Critique Club :::

Hi, as requested, here is an indepth critique of your submission.

First Impression - the most important one:
Wow, luck of the draw I get to discuss this photo with you again. It's quite a good shot and does meet the challenge well.

Composition:
I like how you framed your subject here, but the "frame" itself is a bit cluttered to be as effective as it could be.

Subject:
Subject is clear, but once again I'm distracted by all the clutter. By that, I mean I can tell too much of what is going on with everyone else. As mentioned in the forumns the pont of view is from inside the mob. A more omnipetent point of view may have broguht "singled" him out more.

Technical (Colour, focus, and light):
Colour: quite nice... but for some reason, my eye is seeing his color as being different than the rest of the image. He seems more saturated than everything else. I'm not sure why.
Focus: Very sharp in his eyes, but fades a little too fast from there.
Light: Well lit, and very well exposed.

To grow its vote?:
Point of view, I believe or simplification of the frame. Your outtake that you showed us, I feel with its simplicity and interest would have score quite a bit better.

Summary:
It is a good photo, very good technicals. Just a few compostional adjustments could have made this really something really special.

Hope to see more from you soon,
Leroy
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/24/2006 06:49:36 AM
I gave this a 6. I thought the character/eccentricity capture was fairly good and that it was a fairly good candid capture within the crowd/environment. The main 'criticism' I had was: although the gentleman was 'singled out', he (and the dog) did not 'stand out' enough in my opinion. The character(s) were colorful, but the crowd was even more colorful, thus detracting again from the impact of the 'singled out' subject(s). The dog possibly in focus as well and more visible, a finer crop especially the lady on the left and the 'blown'/overexposed people/objects in the distance and possibly also at the bottom, especially to eliminate that 'pink leg/brown shoe', may have made this better in my opinion. Also, fairly minor (but causes additional issues in trying to adjust in pp), the reflection/blown' area on the gentleman's forehead is slightly distracting/detracting. The lighting may have been better utilized from another angle, depending what was there/you had access to, obviously. His seemingly smallish frame/build makes it even harder to 'single him out'. Lastly, although the focus seems good (also for 'isolating using range'), but a little sharper would be even better, just seems a fraction blurry, but could be resizing issues, etc. In my opinion, even a 'perfect shot' of a character like this (with or without dog), likely starts to get into areas of 'novelty'/subject matter and personal preferences, style/taste; if you've seen it before, then it is not so novel and the 'character impact' may not be as strong &/or some people/viewers will 'see' something other than 'the novelty' or 'character', if that makes sense. Difficult, and you obviously attempted many shots as mentioned, so well done for making a concerted effort to try to 'meet the Challenge', which you did well, in my opinion.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2006 08:58:30 AM
I can't help you. I gave you an 8. The only ones I scored higher were pictures that were particularly stunning or beautiful that also met the challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/23/2006 01:42:55 AM
Thanks for all the encouraging comments during this challenge, I really got my hopes up. I tried to meet the challenge description and thought I did so. None of these comments said otherwise and the DOF was totally done prior to post processing. So now that it's over I feel totally let down and I would greatly appreciate constructive criticism. What is wrong with this photo for this challenge and/or what would have made it better for this challenge?

I also started a thread on this in hopes of receiving some constructive ctiricism:
//www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=336232
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/22/2006 12:54:32 PM
I like this. You did a good job singling out the main subject and that subject is actually interesting and engages the viewer. Good job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/21/2006 10:21:41 PM
very crisp
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/20/2006 11:54:06 PM
The old man and his dog do stand out , so well done...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/19/2006 07:27:10 AM
Very good subject, good use of DOF.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/18/2006 07:31:10 PM
What a catch....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/18/2006 05:03:19 PM
Nice use of the DOF. Too much stuff in the frame, though, for my taste.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2006 06:49:33 PM
Love the story this one tells!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2006 03:09:33 PM
I am kinda feeling concerned for the wee doggy...or maybe for anyone who touches his doggy
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2006 03:03:55 AM
Great candid capture and right on challenge .. there's not many of them.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
01/16/2006 01:36:11 AM
This made me smile. I love the colors. Great choice for the challenge. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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