My kitten knocked over my plant and I could see all the roots around the earth so I decided that it would be a good photo for the dirt challenge, I hope you find it a good photo for the challange also.
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You've got something with a zero-thought-required relation to the challenge theme. This is good if you don't want to take any risks.
The subject matter is boring. Very boring. So the challenge for you is to present it in an interesting manner. Dead centered and slightly out of focus with nasty shadows and a pea soup background is not the approach to take.
Perhaps getting in closer, or cropping the image heavily, to present a section of the root ball with the dirt amidst the plant matter - in sharp focus - would work better. There are some interesting patterns in there. Shot from straight on or even slightly below would also work better than top down. Certainly a black (or white maybe) background would also set the subject off nicely and get it to stand out.
A final consideration is the lighting. Try setting this next to a window during the day and let the natural light fall on it from the side. That would accentuate the shadows within the root ball giving the whole thing much more depth and my eye much more to feast upon.
Hope those are some relatively helpful ideas. I imagine this photo is probably not setting a scoring record but maybe you are getting comments so you can make some improvements for the next challenge.
Out of focus. I think the DOF is just a bit to shallow to get the entire image in focus. The lighting is pretty harsh and appears to be from direct flash judging by the harsh shadows behind the plant.
A bit too zoomed in. I know what you are going for, but I just don't get enough context. Maybe it is the background that is getting me. It's quite an odd color. 4
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