Shot with 50mm1.8 lense on 20d with metz 45cl-3 flash gun to the right side connected by sync cable and caught this after about 50 go's. I eventually got the ballon on shot when it was bursting, no advanced editting here just a slight tweak of curves and resizing,thanks for looking
Statistics
Place: 162 out of 244 Avg (all users): 5.1829 Avg (commenters): 5.3000 Avg (participants): 5.0000 Avg (non-participants): 5.3516 Views since voting: 857 Views during voting: 355 Votes: 246 Comments: 12 Favorites: 0
First Impression - the most important one: Good composition, though the colors could be a little more vibrant. Before reading the notes I was under the impression that the blur was from the balloon moving, not bursting.
Composition: Composition on this shot is very strong in terms of placement. Pleasing to the eye, and the arm and needle are nicely extended to move the eye along the shot.
Subject: Good choice of subject, especially with the play on words :-) Neat idea!
Technical (Colour, focus, and light): The colors look true to life, though I would be interested to see a little tweaking. For *this* challenge, I might suggest adding some saturation to the ballon--to ensure that it really stands out. I also wonder what it would look like if you desaturated the arm a bit...may help the balloon to stand out even more. Focus looks good, especially on the arm. Lighting looks good as well. I think a split second later might have shown the balloon bursting more, but I can hardly imagine how much work it must take to get that kind of shot! In the lower right corner there is a spot where the light is reflecting off the background a bit...but the rest of the black is nice and solid.
To grow its vote?: To grow its vote, as an image in this challenge, I would suggest adding some saturation to the color of the balloon. For a challenge based on color, they really need to pop! I think some voters may also have mistaken the blur for shaking, rather than popping/bursting.
Summary: A great idea!! I more than applaud you for sticking it out through 50 attempts to get this shot! With determination like that to see your concept through, you'll be getting plenty of high scores!
Would have been more fun if you could have captured the bursting of the balloon and more color. Definitely could use more color. Like the concept though.
The woman's hand is almost more vibrantly colored than the balloon, and none of the colors are particularly saturated. The position of the woman's fingers seems a little odd; making her pose look a little more intentional would improve the image, as would catching the balloon mid-pop.