Climbing Aroundby
JCYRHSComment by Louis: Greetings from the Critique Club!
On first view, your image has an immediately strong impact. Colours are vibrant, and composition is interesting, with the subject occupying the right half of the picture and the entire portion of the blue background. The face, arguably the main subject of the image, is a great portrait of struggle. The material on the hands add much interest, and cause us to want to know more about the subject.
After viewing for a while, several issues come to mind. Would it have been better to put the strong colour into more pronounced bokeh, having the depth of field proceed from just in front of the subject's hands to just behind his head? This may have had a stronger impact. This would have also blurred out the visible patches of white from chalk(?) that appear on the red mat, which detract slightly. Although the composition works well for me, it could be argued that a tighter crop of the face and right hand might have made this a more dramatic image. Sharpening and contrast to enhance the features of the face, truly making this a portrait of struggle, would have helped this image.
This criticism pretty much flies in the face of what the challenge is about, however. Making this a better image in terms of what the picture seems to be about would make it less about "Playtime". For that reason, in my opinion, your image doesn't really stand up to the challenge, it being quite difficult to discern that this man is playing.
However, I believe this is a great picture despite this. Congrats!
I hope this helps,
Louis
Photographer found comment helpful.