I took this picture in front of a glass door with the blinds slightly open and no lights on in the room. Skylar (my 3-year old son) and Shelby (my 12-year old miniature schnauzer) sat on a bench and "played". I took over 50 outtakes, mostly because I wanted Skylar and Shelby to be looking directly at each other.
I hope that the cords on the blinds add visual interest rather than detract from the composition. I adjusted levels so that you can see Skylar's facial expression, but not the switchplate left of the window. I think the body language between boy and dog is clear to the viewer. :)
I never would have taken a picture like this before DPC, so I am on a huge learning curve right now (thanks to everyone who contributes).
FYI, Skylar and Shelby really are inseparable!
Post-processing in PS: adjustments in contrast, brightness, curves, color-balance, slight rotate, crop, neat image, USM, save for web.
Statistics
Place: 50 out of 352 Avg (all users): 6.1498 Avg (commenters): 6.9286 Avg (participants): 5.8265 Avg (non-participants): 6.3373 Views since voting: 1777 Views during voting: 383 Votes: 267 Comments: 53 Favorites: 4 (view)
My choice to keep the negative space on the left... may have cost me some votes.
Definitely! You captured a creat moment here with beautiful lighting, but the dark area pulls your eye away from the story IMO. Crop that out and this shot scores over 6.5 easy.
Back from vacation to see that you scored north of 6 for the first time. CONGRATULATIONS! I personally would have placed it a bit higher than 50th but you had some stiff competition on this one. The cool thing to me is that you captured an emotive shot...my favorite kind. At the rate you are improving your scores, you'll be crossing off that >7.0 goal before the month is out! Rock on!
*****Oh yeah...and I can't wait to see what the science teacher does for Chemistry.
In explaining my rating of 5 I go back to my argument that a photo strength comes from it's ability to communicate and entertain.
Most of the time I may vote lower because the photo just does not interst me. Even in technically well made photos.
Yours goes the other way. You made a good choice on your subject matter and it caught my attention. The trouble when I started to look at the photo was the black on the left, almost felt as if you were shooting past a doorway or something and caught the door or curtain in the photo. This ruined my ability to get into the photo, made it feel like a snapshot. If you would have been able to correct that part of the photo I could see me giving this photo a 7 easily.
My choice to keep the negative space on the left proved to be most controversial for me in this challenge. 22 out of the 45 comments I received expressed their dislike, while many others said it looked good. I don't know, but I think it may have cost me some votes. :(
There are pictures... and then there are images that strike a chord with the audience, evoking fond memories, or generating a feeling of warmth and well being. This is one of those rare pearls, and justly warrants the 10 score I gave it. Very well done indeed.
Has potential, however the doorframe or whatever it is on the left really takes your eyes away from the subject. I would personally have scored this image higher if it was cropped to remove the left margin.
Nice photograph. I might have reflected a little more light though on the dark side of the photograph. It is a little too heavy. I wonder what it would look like if you just cropped that part off?
The thing I like about this, is the stark contrast between the silhouetted and the background. Many photos in this particular competition have fuzzy edges that take away from the strong emotion silhouettes are supposed to evoke. Likewise, this photo seems less arbitrary and contrived than most in this competition. (I really don't care what a statue of a man with a banjo looks like juxtapositioned against a sunset)
I like how this shot is not a standard 2D silhouette like most of the other entries. The subjects stand out nicely against all the rectangular objects surrounding them.
I really like this image. Because of your unusual composition with the wall down the left of the image, it almost feels like your peeking into the room and catching a very touching moment between a little boy and his dog.
I think the thing I love most is the rim lighting around the face and chest of the lad. Lovely image, well done!
Absolutely perfect picture... Love everything about it.. I think it is nice to see a littlebit of the boys sholder, it adds to the beauty of the picture.. also the dark left side off it... BEAUTIFUL
The shadow on the left is quite distracting from the image. I'm a bit on the fence about the blinds. The parallel lines lend something to the image, but compete with the subject. If you keep them in, you should reposition your subjects and zoom in to eliminate the cord-tracks that hold the blinds up, leaving only the parallel lines.
Love the lines of the blinds. The detail on the schnauzer's chin is great. Sweet. What if you cropped some of the black on the left.... it doesn't really add to the shot much. Still.... I like it - different. 7
Beautiful emotive shot. Very strong. Excellent composition and I even like some of the darkness to the left...but perhaps trimming a bit of it out would have been stronger. Very nice. 8
Nice and tender moment you have captured. I really dislike that half the photo is pure black though. I personally would have cropped in to focus on the subjects.
Great shot, it's a shame about the left hand side, it spoils the affect a little. i would have preferred a tighter crop to just include the blinds or at least less of the shadow.
What a lovely picture! Too bad you didn't crop out the black on the left side. You know what they say: "What doesn't add to a picture should be removed". I still give it a 9.
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