Homeless musician in Ann Arbor, MI. Taken during the annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Marathon and Taste Fest. I did not expect to see anyone with this kind of character at the "taste fest" so I felt that this photo was a perfect match for the challenge. I am however concerned that voters will not understand...I guess I will wait and see.
Statistics
Place: 88 out of 163 Avg (all users): 5.2602 Avg (commenters): 7.3333 Avg (participants): 5.0702 Avg (non-participants): 5.3175 Views since voting: 826 Views during voting: 325 Votes: 246 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
The first three parts of this critique are written based purely on examination of your photo. "Final thoughts" is written after reviewing your score, photographer's comments, and voter comments.
TECHNIQUE The first thing that struck me about your picture is the relative darkness of the face. With a portrait like this, the face is automatically where the eye goes upon first looking, so it has to live up to the attention it's going to get. Your lighting and the subject's dark complexion has left the face in deep shadow. It is a fascinating face, with much detail that unfortunately, seems to be lost in the rest of the image. I like the choice of black and white - a duotone would have worked well too. Focus looks good; a nice clean image, but the darkness of the face puts me off a bit. Did you try to shoot with a fill-flash??
COMPOSITION The composition is unusual and I'm not sure it's balanced enough. I like the fact that you got close, but I think you could have tightened it up even more. I love the placement of the left hand but the chopping of the guitar neck and the entire right arm feels odd. The background is also not desirable so I would have probably chosen to get closer and really fill the frame with the face and upper body. Maybe a different perspective to preserve some of the guitar too (looking down the neck toward the person, etc.).
EMOTIONAL IMPACT People shots are some of the most emotionally hard-hitting shots and this one does a good job, but would have been much more impacting had the face been more prominent and/or better lit. The expression on his/her face is very intriguing. I can't tell if it's a smile or a frown about the break out. The sunglasses are cool but I bet the eyes would have been awesome too.
FINAL THOUGHTS Your title does a good job of providing some context. Your final score of just above five is what I would have predicted. I bet with more emphasis on the face in both technique (lighting) and composition, you would have pushed six.
Just a matter of taste, but I would have liked this image more grainy - would give it a gritty, realistic feel maybe. I still like the image as it is, but maybe you should try out a grain/noise filter to see if it works like that?
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