Greetings from the Critique Club! I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:
Personal Reaction: Although I didn’t vote this challenge, my initial reaction was that this was a middle-of-the-pack photo. Further reflection didn’t bump it in my opinion, either up or down.
Composition: Good composition, although it feels tight to me. There is essentially no room around the face for context (more later). But given the crop, the comp’s fine.
Technicals: Excellent. Lighting, tonal range, focus, DoF … essentially everything is spot on.
Overall: You got some comments that this looked “fake” or “made up.” But I don’t think this was the photo’s greatest issue. For me, what would have “made” the photo would have been the inclusion of context. Put the face in a mine, or in front of mining equipment, or something to lend it meaning. I do agree that the dirt is pretty neat … it doesn’t look dirty, but rather applied. If he had rubbed his hands all over his face smearing the dirt, working it into his pores, clumping it up in his whiskers … it would have seemed more realistic. This has to do with the fitness for the theme more than the photo on its own merit.
As always, these are my personal observations. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog about the photo or my critique.
Technically excellent shot, although that might not be entirely to its advantage. All well and good if he really is a miner and that really is dirt, but the whole thing is so conscientiously set up and posed that I really couldn't say.
I'm afraid the dirt looks just too "made up". The lighting is nice though. It seems the camera chose to focus on the tip of the nose instead of his eye. I would also have tried to ditch the part of the chair. 5
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