Editing:
copy background wall, blur to remove some texture from wall, flatten image, grayscale, clean up spots with healing tool, crop, render lighting effects, border.
Statistics
Place: 22 out of 77 Avg (all users): 5.9490 Avg (commenters): 6.5833 Avg (participants): 5.5806 Avg (non-participants): 6.1895 Views since voting: 1482 Votes: 157 Comments: 14 Favorites: 0
I disagree with those who did not like the burned-out spot. The concept of the image IMHO has based on the contrasts: light buring the heart of the Dragon (I'd made it concentrated little higher on the chest and gave it some glow) and the shadow. The shadow does not have to stand apart from the body - overlap is OK and be lager, darker and more blurred. You can not separate the Dragon and his shadow - the self-esteem. And composition would benefit too - currently it is split unevenly leaving just the tip of wing in the center of attention. Teeth must also be in focus...
Overall: very good underlying idea, nice choice of methods to render it and need improvement in details ;-)) +5
I read a little about the dragon and its meaning. Tenacious came up in several of the descriptions, and I wanted to portray the dragon with it's "tenacious" attitude, reaching for hard to get goals. So I used to shadow to depict the dragon as seeming larger than it really is. I intentionally burned the bottom right with the rendering in photoshop to create a fade from the bottom right to the top of the shadow in the top left. This wasn't very accepted by most voters, apparently. But this is my second submission, and I placed very good in my opinion. I am a beginner in photography, and to place 22nd is quite an honor!! Thanks for all the comments and votes! This site is really a lot fun, and I am learning so much. MUST GET BETTER CAMERA NOW!
I like the texture of the dragon, I looks wooden. The shadow is also interesting and adds an intimidation that normally are associated with dragons. The carving/figurine is nicely detailed and sharp. Only negative is the harsh/overexposed light coming from the lower right corner. I'm assuming you had to have the light that close to get the desired shadow, but the blown out area is very noticable and probably the best way to have avoided that would have been to move the light a little farther back and play with the EV levels.
Lovely idea and a very effective composition. 2 negative points - the blowout on the bottom right and the head is underexposed. Also, the shadow would have been more effective if it had been darker. 6
Hmm. This looks familiar. Isn;t this the picture that started it all? Nice dragon, nice shadow. Wish the light on the botttom right weren't so bright - the detail is a bit blown out. The contrast and detail in the dragon is good, wish the shadow were a bit darker. You could create more impact with some selective adjustments. And thanks for getting the chionese zodiac idea started, this is fun!
I love the shadow on this... and wonder how it would look cropped to exclude most of the actual figurine... or with a dof to focus more on the shadow than on the figurine. great tones, a bit too bright on the lower right. otherwise a nice image.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
