Rental Home
by hypoStiller

Comment by IGJOE:
Nice use of shades and shadows.

Rental Home
by hypoStiller

Comment by alanfreed:
Interesting interpretation of the challnege, but not all that interesting or compelling, I'm afraid...

Rental Home
by hypoStiller

Comment by Digichrome:
I like how it shows the character of the building without showing the building...if you know what I mean.

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by jmsetzler:
This is a great shot....

Composition: I think the composition here is excellent... I like the addition of the 'elbow' to the frame... The balance of this composition is perfect. The contrasts between the hands, string, and the dark background, along with the lines and patternd created here are quite teasing to my eye. I believe that the 'angles' in this shot also strengthen the overall composition. Your choice of angle and including the 'elbows' in this shot seems to have disturbed some of the voters in this challenge... hmm... dunno why to be quite honest. I think the 'strangeness' of the photo angle and the view of the arms creates something special in this image. In short, this is one of those photos that I 'enjoy' looking at. During this particular challenge, I came back to this photo quite a few times.

Technical: I think the exposure here is good. I think it could probably be better. The ISO 400 grain in this shot doesn't really bother me, but i'm wondering subconsciously if the shot could have been even stronger without the grain. Black and white was a good choice on this shot IMO. I believe that any color here would distract from the lines and shapes that dominate this image. Today is the first time I have looked on this image on my laptop at work. I can see your background. This particular aspect seems to bite me quite frequently. Some computers and monitors are cranked up so high on brightness and contrast that this can become a problem. One of the things I do to check this on my own images is to test them by cranking mine all the way up also. I don't do this test in photoshop. I do it in internet explorer. The two programs do not display images the same way. I believe that a slight level adjustment would correct this issue. I did NOT see it on my monitor at home when I originally judged the image. I doubt very seriously that it would have changed my score anyway. In my opinion, 10 means VERY GOOD. The site description of the scoring doesn't say an image has to be perfect to get a 10 :)

Challenge: I think you did a great job accomplishing the challenge topic here. The dark background simply and beautifully isolates your subject. I can't say much more about that at all...

Kudos on a very interesting and entertaining shot... keep up the good work :)

John Setzler

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by hypoStiller:
Thanks, folks, for the great input! :) I can see that many of you wanted the framing to exclude the elbows -- and isn't that funny? One person's trash is another's treasure. The awkwardness introduced by leaving them in is one of my favorite things about this lucky shot. The additional angles give the image a "froggy" appeal that suddenly made the negative space more interesting than my initial attempts, which show the arms coming parallel from the bottom. Thanks to my lovely wife for the patient hands! (She assures me her limbs didn't cramp up, but thanks for the concern *wink*). I may go over this photo again for a non-challenge version to manually darken the background so that I can achieve a stronger tonal range on the skin without getting overly grainy.

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by jmsetzler:
Excellent shot.. this was my favorite in the challenge :)

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by karmat:
the hands and arms really give this an interesting "angle" karmat

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by Maverick:
I think this might look better with the elbows cropped out, just another option

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by Bigelow:
I love the 3-D feeling of this. And the splayed hands and the lines in the arms and string make it all harmonize. A fun composition.

Jacob's Ladder
by hypoStiller

Comment by mscott821:
Nice idea, I probably would have cropped above the elbows because it just lopks painful and takes my attention away from the fingers and string...