Greetings from the Critique Club.
You can almost hear that note! You've really made this photo come to life. The combination of the strong diagonal of the clarinet and the radial blur make this photo really dynamic. And the overall darkness gives a nice mood. It captures an exciting night life moment.
The exposure is perfect, capturing the subtle contrast between the dark skin and darker instrument and the black background. The lighting plays a big part here, and it works well.
The radial motion blur is exceptionally well done here. There is no blur on the performer's face (good, since that's the focal point here), very subtle blur on the end of the clarinet (gives just a hint that it's moving), and lots of blur on the non-subjects (but not so much that their identies are lost). The more I look at it, the more I am convinced that the shutter speed was really closer to 1/25 instead of 1/125 and the blur was a result of radial panning. So if the radial blur really was added in Photoshop, it's very realistic! Either way, great job with it.
The shallow depth of field augments the motion blur of the background sign and foreground guitarist to focus attention on the subject. Good focus, and the sharpness is just right.
Unfortunately, the composition is a bit weak. First, the white structures right behind the subject are very distracting, both to the subject and to the overall mood. Of course, there isn't anything you can really do about that! This is a street shot, and you don't have the control you'd have in a studio. Perhaps a different position would help, but not likely (and probably not possible). Nevertheless, that's probably a major factor to this photo's mediocre score.
Second, the subject is centered, and that rarely makes for an interesting photo. Cropping off the guitarist would put the performer at the magical rule of thirds position, but would also eliminate most of the cool radial blur, so I don't recommend that. But a less drastic crop, removing the guitarist's back but leaving the arm and head, would shift the subject out of dead center yet retain much of the blur that makes this photo so interesting.
Overall, I think this is a great debut entry, and I've really enjoyed studying it. Again, I think it captures the moment very well. Don't let the disappointing score or lack of comments discourage you! I look forward to seeing more of your photos here on DPChallenge. |
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