All auto settings on camera and macro, natural light.
Editing: crop, switch to B&W, contrast, blackpoint, gamma, salt & pepper, sharpen, edge preserver, resize, and border.
Debated big time about the background, coloring, crop, and the border. Background may be too distracting or busy but I think it kind of helps the viewer to want to rest their eyes on the doll's eye. Colors were great but she still seemed too sweet with her little pink lips and big blue eyes - had to go with B&W. Going with this crop as it just feels most disturbing. Had a few different border versions. No border at all gave a better feel of baby doll looking at you from behind something - and sometimes less is more. However, the overall image seems more complete with the border, still on the fence, and I probably will be debating on this until voting is over. Ugh.
Statistics
Place: 13 out of 144 Avg (all users): 6.3090 Avg (commenters): 7.8571 Avg (participants): 6.0167 Avg (non-participants): 6.3860 Views since voting: 8353 Views during voting: 423 Votes: 288 Comments: 22 Favorites: 2 (view)
Hard to believe how scary a doll can be. You certainly achieved it here - This is really terrific! Congrats on your top 20 placement. The background was definitely the right choice and the B/W adds that necessary element of mystery and darkness. Well done.
Hello Shannon ... Critique Club calling ...
What I like most about this excellent image is that you managed to suggest considerable malevolence while actually showing us nothing but a benign, innocent looking doll. What you did NOT do is resort to the primitive by using "evil" make-up or props (or even worse, using the Chucky doll proposed by a couple of commentators, poor souls). Your choice was clever not only because it is subtle, but also because it demonstrates an understanding of the particular phobia you were depicting. The sufferers are inexplicably afraid of sweet, harmless dolls, and that's what's most interesting about this particular affliction. Everyone's afraid of Chucky; there's nothing phobic about that! So, it's a terrific idea, which is three quarters of the battle right there.
The rest is execution, and you didn't let yourself down in that respect either. The technical aspects of the image are very good, and the choices in both composition and processing are sensitive to your objective. Even the slightly disorienting background you were worried about contributes to the "disturbing" feel you were after.
So, a very fine entry that deserved its high placing, and could well have scored higher had it not been for the "Chucky" vote.
Cheers,
Paul Martin
This is the creepiest pic in the challenge I think. One look at this doll and you just know it is evil. Good job on this one. If I were voting I'd give you a ten.
What a CREEPY doll...and a great, jarring, CREEPY way to shoot it. This is one of the best shots that doesn't show a response from someone in the actual photo.
This is suggestive of a sinister doll, thanks mainly to the framing. It's holding a knife below the frame, I expect. I'm amazed how effective it is -- it what you don't see that scares you.
Nice, sharp capture. The strong lines in the background lead my eyes back to the doll. The doll looks a little bit unnaturally devoid of surface detail, but I suppose that this isn't implausible for a plastic doll; with any other subject this would look over-NeatImaged.
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