It's OK, but I believe you can do better. No technical complaints, but it doesn't move me. Then again, a nasty cold virus means my head isn't at it's best.
I doesn't do much for me in terms of subject matter and composition. The shape of the dead wood in the foreground is interesting but the chopped off tree truck in the background is a strong vertical leading line straight up and out the top of the frame.
The image has a full tonal range in that there isn't much clipping on either end, but the 3/4 tones are "blocked" meaning that the normal progression of gray scale steps you'd see in person are missing. The tonal range jumps from black and nearly black (Zone 0 and 1) to middletones (Zones 5 -6) with very little in the Zone 2-4 range.
I would suspect you could coax more detail out of the RAW will Fill, Blacks, Brightness and Contrast adjustments in ACR but even then content- / message it would fall short for me. The white mat is also distracting, fighting the shadow detail in the image for attention. Try a black one and compare the difference — you'll perceive more detail in the shadows.
I agree with Kaden, on this monitor, as opposed to a laptop, it looks awfully dark (imagine me saying that! ).
Here is where we digress from DeWolfe - he would have a much finer tonal gradation on lighted side of dead wood and reduced contrast. How to get there? Do not know, and perhaps not possible from basic image?
Nope.... Not left-handed or buried. I'd say implicit. I believe you can and often do make strong images. That one is pleasant, but last I looked there was at least one entered in the WA I though was much stronger. Of course, I rarely agree with the WA winner picked, so take any of my WA advice with a large grain of salt.
Kent,
I agree with the feedback you have already received.
You did a beautiful job with a tight crop and beautiful use of shallow DOF. But the overall image is just not strong enough compositionally.
Scott
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