Paper quickly realizes his defeat over Rock is short livedby
navyasw02Comment by posthumous: Greetings from the Critique Club!
As you know, I enjoyed this entry during the challenge. But I suppose it's my duty now to speculate why this didn't score higher with the general public (though it didn't score badly by any means). I have a feeling the 4 and under votes were for DNMC. I know it's not fair, but this is the sort of challenge where different people have different expectations, and it is impossible to please them all. Since you were trying to simulate human feeling instead of human form, you risked some people missing the connection, and I think that's what happened. But that was their shortcoming, not yours.
Also, your scissors are completely black, probably a cut-out rather than actual scissors. DPCers like to see details, and if they are looking at a picture of scissors they want it to really look like scissors! They want to feel like they can reach into the monitor and grab those scissors. Why they want such a thing, I have no idea. But that does seem to be the dominant esthetic here.
Now, let's talk about what you
gain by having black scissors. They give you a dark, ominous shape, which adds to the mood of the picture. And since it's the mood that creates personification, this is very important! It also adds a sense of the theatrical. In other words, this is a staged shot, we all know it's staged and we're enjoying that. Kind of like being at a circus instead of a realistic play. If you look at a lot of Man Ray's studio photos, you'll sense the same thing: he is glorying in the illusion instead of trying to hide it.
And while we're talking about studios, you take full advantage of yours by creating as simple a set up as possible without the cop-out of having no background at all. You create a corner. What more direct way of creating the feeling of being cornered? You also create dark, dramatic shadows that add to the mood. These same shadows are not popular at DPC. They like to see detail in shadowed areas. Again, this is an arbitrary desire and I don't recommend that you cater to it. You are on the right path here, making all technical decisions in support of what this particular photo is trying to achieve. The kudos from your commentors should be evidence of your success.
Photographer found comment helpful.