Greetings from the Critique Club:
You came in pretty low in this challenge, I didn't vote in it or even look until now but the quality of the high finishers was very high indeed. With the bar set up there, less special shots were always going to get relegated. Looking up through the field (just above you), there are a number of blurry flowers and objects that are less well executed than your shot, though there are some astonishingly good abstracts down here too.
Let me try to give some feedback on your composition and lighting as requested.
Full length portraits are really difficult, it's human nature to look at the face so placement of the face is tricky - doing it with a tightish crop is never really going to work without great clothes, dramatic (and planned) lighting and a controlled background - none of those elements are here. There was a full length model portrait challenge last summer, look that up and check out the high finishers - you'll see the difference. Abandon full length, crop this below your right elbow and the image instantly gets better, without even trying, your face and hand fall into 'rule of thirds' positions. This alone wouldn't have been enough for you to do well though because of the stuff below.
In terms of lighting, it's well balanced in terms of giving enough light to you, on your face whilst not creating excessively bright highlights elsewhere, but doing this shot in broad daylight like this give you little opportunity to create something effective. Go and have a look at the outdoor daylight portraits in the portfolios of  lovethelight and  njsabs and see how they use the light. Lower sun equals warmer colours right away and if you are skilled in your choices you can use a contre jour technique to add some high interest.
The overall scene does, as one of your commenters suggests, look snap-shot like - the bush adds nothing and it looks like the only reason it is there is because you regarded it as a cool colour to include. Never let the challenge brief dictate the aesthetics of a shot - a beautiful DNMC will always score more that a dull, boring or poorly executed challenge meeting image.
The title adds little, you are clearly looking into a bush, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. Posting an image in a DPC competition is a communication act, it comes with a viewer expectation of story - many (but not all) voters will not tolerate confusion.
I've looked at your portfolio and you macro with bugs or flowers is nicely made and would have done well in this challenge and your photographing photographers entry is quirkily engaging.
Overall, as a capture of a scene it is competent, more so than some of the others in the challenge but as a set of artistic choices that should be more than the sum of the whole, then I think this is much less successful.
I'd love to see you have a go at more self portraits though, perhaps use one of the current challenges to see how you can emulate the work in the portfolios I signposted above?
Paul |
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