I am horrified at some of the entries that placed higher than this photo. I am not meaning to sound full of myself, but the quality of this photo compared to something shot with on camera flash in about 10 minutes does not do it for me. Many people commented on the photo being "out of focus". When in fact had they taken time to analize the photo they would have seen that the highlights on the ballet shoe are diffused and the rest of the photo does not have much diffusion at all. Many hobbiest think that in order to be a great photo that it must be tack sharp. It took me a while to realize that some pictures are better not being tack sharp. This photo was meant to represent characters not just shoes. The ballet shoe is soft and embracing while the old shoe is dark yet charming. I wish people could get past the commercial aspect of photos and learn to see the art in them. I am so fired up right now that I almost want to quite the site because a lot of members just dont get the art of photography.
Desaturate and colorize
Diffused glow on seperate layer and opacity turned down
Added contrast and Diffusion to extra layer and brought down opacity
Burned corners
Retoucing to remove string the shoes were hanging from
Statistics
Place: 25 out of 105 Avg (all users): 5.7619 Avg (commenters): 7.0556 Avg (participants): 5.6250 Avg (non-participants): 5.8085 Views since voting: 1379 Views during voting: 439 Votes: 252 Comments: 26 Favorites: 4 (view)
I think conceptually this is the best in the challenge - and photographically it's very close too.
Great set up and really great thought went into this.
I understand being frustrated with the masses not seeing my vision - I've decided a check is better than a ribbon, and art directors and photo buyers giving defined "challenges" beats the vagueness here. I could go on, PM me if you really care. ;-)
But you ARE a great photographer, and ARE a great artist - the tantrum alone tells me about the artist part! :-) (having thrown a few myself).
So smile - yours is worthy of a gallery - something that I can't say for any of the front page IMO.
I personally like this shot, the flowing lines and contrast are really attractive.
I think photos like this one, while scoring low on conservative DPC, whould be much appreciated on deviantart.com, which, as the name implies, deals with art that "deviates" from regular rules.
Get over it. As I commented before you will get penalized here for not having a sharp picture. You can always enter with the attitude that the score doesn't matter as long as you are personally satisfied with the picture. But if you want a top score, you have to appeal to the masses.
Note also that if it were up to the commenters on your picture you would have gotten 1st place (7.056), so don't go blaming us!
Wonderful concept and well executed. I tried something in this vien in the Shoes challenge, but achieved nothing near as lyrical and sublime as this. I can say that I feel the boot is almost too dark, and that some of the detail is lost. I don't think that that is overpowering, however. Good luck.
nice setup & color cast unfortunately seems out of foucus just a bit. If you were going for the soft focus I think it went a bit too far. A PS tip or two- select the highlights (ctrl + alt + ~) and make a seperate layer (ctrl + j) blur only that layer to retain the crisp shadows. or you could use your history brush to bring back sharpness in the details like the laces & such. Again- a great idea :0) (8)
A truly unique and imaginative approach to the challenge theme... works great. Perhaps the boot is a little lost in the background for me, a little dodge and burn would have helped I think... but otherwise one of the top entries... well done.
A great choice for this challenge. I really like the black and white and its cool how they seem suspended in mid-air. The focus seems a little soft, but i still like it.
great idea and processing. At first, I had some trouble with his top lace from a composition standpoint, but the more i study the more i like what you've done.
Love the tonal range (not too hard, but you still have great highlights and shadows), love the concept, and the emotion. Despite the shoes being inanimate, you have really given them a sense of individual personality.
Lovely!!! Right on topic, charming arrangement with the laces and ribbons (how did you do that?). The color treatment and vignetting works very well. 8
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