Many many thanks to Nathaniel Elliott who is an excellent photographer in his own right and put up with lights shining right straight into his eyes.
Can you tell I've been watching Ironman recently?? Haha!!
I don't quite remember how this one was lit. All I know for sure is that there was a very bright light to the left pointing straight back at the white background. There may have been a large softbox to the right...
Hoping for a PB as always. I don't think this shot is particularly unique though, so I expect to place in the mid-thirties.
Statistics
Place: 175 out of 186 Avg (all users): 3.8894 Avg (commenters): 5.5000 Avg (participants): 3.7170 Avg (non-participants): 3.9521 Views since voting: 766 Views during voting: 303 Votes: 199 Comments: 7 Favorites: 0
Hi, ;) I think it's tough to pull off blue(cool) toned skin and they may be what is holding this one back. It isn't overtly blue in totality, although certainly as much as many of the entries. focus is sharp which makes DPC happy. I do however find his expression rather bland--you may have been going for a blue 'sad' look but I'm feeling a little more of the bored look. From a portrait perspective, a little fill light on his face may have helped. Might have also brought out some of the nice color in his shirt.
I suspect the score reflects a tenuous connection to the challenge in the opinion of the voters. Sorry my comment is rather rambling. PM me if I don't make sense...
I'm personally not a fan of the lighting. It feels like either a full harsh side lighting or a soft all around lighting needs to be chosen, and the two struggle against each other slightly.
The first thing that strikes me is that the lighting is too dark. The title implies the facial expression is the main element in the photo but we can't really see the expression. The blue in the shot also seems incidental which means this will garner more than a few DNMC votes. If I was voting I'd probably put this at a 4 or 5 for these reasons. Even with the lighting "fixed" I think the blue needs to be more prominent in the image to avoid those DNMC votes.
Your title is at odds with the photo itself. In my view, the only intensity is the contrast, which is ok, but in a portrait style photo like this (especially when trying to grab a 2 second voting audience), it actually plays against you. What people will be expecting with the title is an intensity either in the color itself (which is actually muted here), or in the expression of the model. This one's expression is more boredom.
You've missed the mark with focus as well. This image doesn't convey the typical sharpness needed to grab people on their pass-through, and it also doesn't carry enough to make most people remember it for a second pass-through. The facial expression is off-putting, as is the darkness of it.
As for connection with the challenge, you've got it with the coloring in the shirt, and there's some in the toning of the face, but over-all, the color is pretty muted, and again, at odds with your title. People tend to think that if they just get a connection with the challenge, that they should automatically get a 5 (not saying you do, but that's the prevailing thought).
However, this simply isn't true. It can nail the challenge perfectly, but if your technicals are fighting each other or not very strong, or the subject matter is off-putting or simple, or otherwise uneventful, that score is going to suffer hugely.
Having said all that, I suspect that you'll eventually even out to around a 4.05 - 4.25 by the end of the challenge. It's not a horrible photo, but there are a lot of smaller factors adding up that put it into that unfortunate realm of "DPC Forgettable".
*EDIT* I just got your shooting info, and I'll elaborate:
f/5.6 is a good aperture for portraiture, but it does depend on lighting. I'm confused as to your decision to leave the face in partial darkness, as a fill flash (bounced or softened), probably would have helped you get a little more focus and dynamic into the model. I'm also not sure that it's fully a focus problem, but there IS a noticeable softness and lack of detail in his face that will usually get lower votes.
The 1/60th tells me that you were metering on the darkness of the model. You might want to try using a different metering mode for future work of this type (unless, personally, this is a look you like. In which case, all the power, just remember that DPC is a different animal. hehe).
Personally, I would have shot this at about an f/4.5, with a 1/125 - 1/180 sec shutter speed, using fill-flash. If you don't have a flash, your best bet is to find a strong light and a piece of foam board as a reflector to get some light in that face. DPC will love you for it. ;)
That's about all I can add. I hope some of this helped.
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