A last-minute entry, I'm pleased with this as it was a rushed set-up and the resulting shot needed very little editing. Taken with my 18-55mm VR kit lens, lit with a flash gun. I added a border as an afterthought as I felt it looked better.
Editing: Cropped, resized, adjusted brightness/contrast using levels, desaturated the colours, denoised slightly, sharpened and added borders.
Statistics
Place: 9 out of 81 Avg (all users): 6.3457 Avg (commenters): 8.1250 Avg (participants): 5.8163 Avg (non-participants): 6.5752 Views since voting: 1801 Views during voting: 309 Votes: 162 Comments: 17 Favorites: 2 (view)
I saw your comment in the thread so I thought I would come over and leave you a comment. I personally thought this was a great shot for what it is and here is why.
You have a large range of tones for it being a black and white which causes definition. The idea of the guy being an animal lover is okay but nothing about it really stands out, the main subject in this photo is the rat and because he is interacting with the man it makes it much more enjoyable. Also the Background is a nice smooth soft non distracting background which really make your subject pop. The border even adds a nice touch to it.
The reason I didn't vote any higher was because I thought his shot was a little simple for it's class. Your subject are in focus but I think the f-stop of 5.6 makes them a bit soft. I would have liked to see a much sharper image. Opening the aperture would have done this nicely. Also with the addition of unsharp mask or smart sharpen.
Another reason I didn't vote higher was the slight lack of interest. Like I said it's a good photo but it doesn't make me think. I think that when a photo inspire me or makes me enjoy the image I vote higher and spend a bit more time on it.
This works very well for me -- I love the way the rat's face fits in under its handler's nose. Excellent decisions in deciding how much of the guy's face to include. Detail, lighting, and range of tones are all very good, too.
I love the lines the profile of his face makes, as well as the shape of the mouse/hand. Good composition. I wish you took this against a different colored background, as it makes the image look muddy even though the actual subject is properly exposed..
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