RedRockby
KokkurinnComment by Mark-A: Greetings from the Critique Club :)
Composition:
Tough one to call this as there's quite a lot going on in the scene and many elements are competing for the viewers attention, even though the big Red stone seems to want to draw my eye when it gets there I am immediately pulled to the whiter one to the right and the harsh light on the one to the left. For DPC I think you would have faired much better had you selected 2 or 3 of these stones and shot them on white or black seemless, with some nicely controlled lighting as the stones themselves look quite interesting with their patterning.
As it stands I think the picture above might have worked better by bringing the red stone closer to the front and maybe off center somewhat, and using a very shallow Depth of Field ( f3.5 on your lens might have just isolated the stone enough from the background for it to hold the attention of the viewer.
Technicals:
I am going to assume you had this on a tripod and as you state 2 flashes were used I am inclined to think you maybe shot this indoors, your biggest problem is the very harsh light on the edge of some of the stones, if I were shooting this scene I think I might be tempted to position the flashes behind and use some reflectors to bounce light back in to the stones this would have helped keep the highlights undercontrol.
Post-Processing:
Nice saturation levels and generally good tonal range, I managed to convert the shot to B&W and conceal the blown highlights a bit but some of the charm of the image was lost due to the nice colours that the stones have.
My Opinion:
A reasonable shot, I think the high focus point coupled with a fussy foreground probably cost you a bit in the voting, I think some of the stones are very nice and had they been selected and used in a DPC style clean and simple, but well executed shot you could have had a fairly high scoring image on your hands - it's well worth looking at the challenge history and seeing what sort of shots the voters like here (if scoring highly is your reason for submitting of course).
Hope this was of some use, should you wish to discuss any part of the critique further please feel free to PM me.
Good luck in future challenges!
Mark
Photographer found comment helpful.
