Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by kevrobertson:
Love what you have tried here.
a big 8 from me that could have been much higher with a less cluttered background. Re-take it, it's worth it

Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by pjotre7:
This theme could be executed much better if you had a slightly different background and did not shoot against the sun. Shifting 50 cm to the right or left could have done the trick already..........

Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by Cory:
In honor of [user]K10Guy[/user] I am doing 10 comments tonight, here is yours :)

Funny. Where was this taken? clearly not in the US.

I like the photo for it's quirky qualities, but by no means is this a great shot. The backlighting just kills the image, and really washes out your model.

Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by K3Master:
I've decided to comment on every shot in this challenge, since I'm sitting at 0 comments, and I'd rather try and take a positive approach to this rather than simply whining about my score:

While I can see where you're trying to go with this photo, I would say this shot focuses less on FASHION, then it does on CULTURE. I agree that it's a bit semantical, but it's an important distinction in my book.

Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by ScooterMcNutty:
this is a great idea, i just dont think that it was done very well. i do like the editing you have done.

Definition of a Hipster
by megano

Comment by platel:
Too much distraction in the background, an overexposed sky and very flat light.

The Product of Mother Nature's Work
by megano

Comment by Yo_Spiff:
Nice, but I see lots of compression artifacts in the sky and around the high contrast edges. Your file size of only 53k indicates a highly compressed image and that is what is robbing a lot of the detail and sharpness from this image. Check your compression settings when you save your file. Always adjust JPEG compression so that your file size is as large as possible, but within the challenge limit. (150k for this one)

The Product of Mother Nature's Work
by megano

Comment by jblaylockrayner:
Interesting take but the composition is a tad awkward and a little boring in subject matter

My Brown Eyed Girl
by megano

Comment by dr rick:
This photo caught my eye while I was checking your profile as part of the critique on your other photo. She is so cute! What a great expression. The unique 3-dimensional form of her cheeks is perfectly captured here, and really brings out her character. Nice "fill the frame" composition. I really like it!

Practice Makes Perfect
by megano

Comment by dr rick:
Greetings from the Critique Club

The action here is great! It catches the proverbial "decisive moment", freezing the action as only a camera can. The simple composition allows people to project their own imagination on it, making the experience personal to every viewer. The memories and emotions it triggers would be very different for a soccer player, a soccer fan, and a ballet dancer!

As others have pointed out, the main problem here is the extreme dynamic range caused by shooting toward the sun. Cameras may freeze action well, but they can't capture both very bright and very dark areas at the same time. And the shadows are so dark here that they obscure the 3-dimensional form. Shooting with the sun behind you would help (although I have no idea what the background would be like in this case).

You can try bringing out some shadow detail here using the Shadows/Highlights tool, although the extremes are so, well, extreme that the result would probably be somewhat unrealistic.

The composition of this photo is weak. The ball is a natural anchor here. It's what the player is looking at, and the focal point of any soccer game. But it's crowded by the left edge. There needs to be a bit more space to the left so the view isn't cut off when the eye is focusing on it.

One more suggestion: Always use the highest quality you can when using the jpeg format. For DPChallenge, you are allowed up to 150K, and you are only using about a third of that here. The "fuzziness" around his head, left hand, and elsewhere is caused by low quality jpeg compression artifacts. They really aren't that noticable here, but do keep this in mind; this can easily ruin otherwise great photos, and it's easily avoided.

Congratulations on a personal high score! This really is a good photo. Voters here tend to over-emphasize technical quality. Keep shooting; practice makes perfect in photography as well as soccer!