I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings -
I know why the caged bird sings.
Taken from my living room couch....right before we left for the lake. My heart goes out to people who are to sick or are incapable of going out on days as beautiful as today.
The photo was converted from RAW using the normal canon software. Then cropped in Photoshop.
Statistics
Place: 282 out of 294 Avg (all users): 4.0556 Avg (commenters): 4.2500 Avg (participants): 3.8857 Avg (non-participants): 4.1848 Views since voting: 633 Views during voting: 241 Votes: 162 Comments: 7 Favorites: 1 (view)
Hi there, I look at this image and personally I do not feel it is 'high contrast'.
Also in viewing the window it seems to be out of focus, the edges are fuzzy and really gives a hard understanding for the eye to take in the image. If the edges of the window where sharp it would make much more of a dramatic statement.
Next, the angle of and size of the window compared to the whitespace does not work for me. It seems really displaced and offers no feeling of continuity or story.
The clouds I enjoy the composition of them through the window, though they seems to have a completely blue haze which really flattens them down and offers no real contrasts. Now if the contrasts where sharper with the clouds, the tilt was fixed to match the horizon or horizontal line and less whitespace was used this may have scored much better.
Overall it really leaves me the feeling of wanting something more, much more.
Just saw your forum post about this entry. I don't know if I was clear in my comment but straightening in post-processing was what I was thinking. I know one often has to take shots at a slightly odd angle to avoid unwanted elements. But if you had straightened it I would have had less to comment on ;-)
BTW, I gave you a 6, and really did find this a thoughtful take on the challenge.
I didn't get to vote on this in the challenge but would have given it at least a 7 I would have thought. It's very highly underrated in my opinion, particularly as you've combined high contrast in tones with contrast in theme between freedom/imprisonment. I suspect most voters didn't pick up on that theme, hence your score.
I'm certainly inclined to agree with some of your other commenters regarding the focus, although I think the angle is fine as it is. I also like that there's a lot of black in the photo too, it conveys the darkness of mood one might have if one were imprisoned.
Other than that - take heart - you've done pretty well on your first entry, even though the score doesn't reflect that. You've obviously got the eye and creativity to do well in later challenges. Good luck!
Subject shows contrast in several senses of the word, which makes it interesting to me. I think the focus on the sky makes sense but it isn't visually appealing to have the window OOF, and the tilt isn't extreme enough to look purposeful. I think the point would still come across with the window in focus (but still silhouetted like it is now), and either extremely tilted or level.
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