Note very original, will likely fade into mediocrity. Extreme close-up of a red rose using the reversed lens trick. A single desk lamp from the top right as the only lighting created the strong shadows inside the flower. I discarded all the colours except red in an attempt to give the red more "punch". This definitely meets the challenge...
Post processing:
Crop to 5:4 aspect ratio
Noise reduction
Discard blue and green channels with channel mixer
Set white point with levels
Add some minor contrast with curves
Resize to 640px
Smart sharpen
Border
Save for web
Statistics
Place: 98 out of 434 Avg (all users): 5.7020 Avg (commenters): 6.8889 Avg (participants): 5.5657 Avg (non-participants): 5.8384 Views since voting: 1364 Views during voting: 292 Votes: 198 Comments: 12 Favorites: 0
I really like shots like this, but I find they have to be done particularly well to carry off that "wow" factor. This one is nice, but doesn't give me the wow. I think it seems a bit too soft in the focus for my tastes and a bit too contrasty. I like the crop and composition.
Positives:
Reds work very well against the black. Tones are generally very, very good. The effect of this image is absolutely dependent on attention to detail and it is obvious you did that.
Technicals:
Technicals are generally good, though not spectacular. There is a question in my mind, and perhaps the mind of voters, as to whether it should be sharper or not. I can't figure it out myself.
This image has a lot of dark space and I'm sure this is by design, but is it good? Again, I don't really know for sure.
One thing I am sure of is that that the technicals are not bad in any way shape or form.
The challenge:
Red floral images composed like this are cliche at DPC and that affected voting on this one. I remember a very fine image by jmsetzler that easily outperformed my own submission in the soft focus challenge:
In order to pull off this type of image you must include something special about it to set it apart from the others. Your choice of a low detail imagery might not have worked as well as another choice might have with voters. There were a number of images like yours in this challenge.
To be honest, by average DPC scoring standards I am a bit surprised it scored as high as it did.
Suggestions:
Perhaps the detail, or lack thereof, in this image ultimately hurt it in voting. Either increase the exposure time or increase the f/stop to include more detail would garner a higher score (Or do it in post.). Study jmsetzler's "Pianissimo" image. It is an excellent example of this particular type imagery. That will teach you far, far more than any critique of mine.
okay the actual picture I like but for the challenge it isn't original. It's like everyone's first thought of red would be that of a red flower. There is just to many of these pictures for me to give this a good score.
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