Wow, I followed the link to this "average" photo and my first impression is that it is anything BUT average. THEN I read the critique club review and I'm like, yeah, I can see that too. But this is a tough audience and I don't consider anything in the 5's average....I think some of photos that average in the 4's are more average. That's the way I want to think about this, because I am a solid 4 in competition!
I love cats so I would have given this a 7 or 8 for D&L. I think it's a great shot!
Hello, and greetings from the critique club. Let's get underway.
Initial Thoughts
Ouch.. kind of hurts to look at for the brightness.
Composition / Content
You've got a really nice compositional element going on here. I like the fact that you've left space in front of where the cat is focusing. Cats, especially black ones, tend to do pretty well on DPC too, so good choice there. The window blinds also seem a little superfluous and unneeded.
Background
Although you don't really have much of a background, per se, what you do have is very washed out, and the color clipping on the yellows is very evident. The plain dull grey behind the cat is also not very flattering to the subject.
Camera Work / Technical
This is where most of the issues lie, IMO. Although I sympathize with trying to properly meter a black cat against an atrociously bright light source (like daylight through a window), I believe that with a little forethought and some experimentation, you could have gotten a little more control than what you've achieved here. I don't know what time of day you *did* shoot in, but it seems to have been at a pretty bright time of day, and perhaps waiting for evening light would have been a lot more beneficial. The softer light would have saved you from such blown highlights, and would have given you greater control over texture and detail on the cat itself. In this kind of instance, I always like to try and shoot on the underexposed side of things, and use post-processing to bring out what I was hoping for. That's just a suggestion though. As is, the harsh light has really caused the cat to become too dark, and you've lost a lot of mid-level detail. Also, the focus seems a little soft on the eyes, which, otherwise, look pretty good (if a little blown out in areas as well).
Digital Processing
You haven't provided any information on this, so I can't be much help. Two things. If you blew this out on your own with PP for an artistic look, I can't fault you for that. Art is what it is. However, for DPC purposes, this look will never do all that well. Blown highlights on this kind of scale are almost certainly score "death".
If you shot it this way, then not much can help you with PP. Again, shooting for an underexposure of about 1/2 stop to a full stop would hlep tremendously.
Fits the Challenge
Definitely fits the challenge. Almost painfully so.. that white light really is bright.
My Opinion of the Photo
It's not something I'm particularily fond of, and the processing and look of the photo just makes it that much harder to like. A little more control over the lighting here, and you'd have had something a lot stronger and easier to view, IMO.
A good try, and obviously you struck quite a number of people as I'd have expected this to be a 4.x photo myself, so keep it up.
This is a difficult combination. To lighten the photo enough to get details from the black cat, the blinds would be way blown out. I would have liked to see more details on her/him though.
Waht a beautiful cat! Love the whiskers and the eyes. Great detailing throughout. Perfect use of dark and light. Any pet shot gets an extra point from me.
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