Hi Janine, greetings from the Critique Club :)
With a placing of 14 out of 89, it's clear this image resonated well with the viewer, especially considering you averaged more 7's than 5's.
For the positives, I really like the centered composition and the phenomenal detail. The reflection in the water is particularly beautiful too. However, where it falls short, in my view, is the processing. While I understand that HDR and HDR-like effects are very popular with the DPC crowd, I feel it is often over-done, as is the case here. The tonemapping has been pushed a little too far for me, to such a degree that the subject no longer appears natural. The image needs more shadows and contrast to make it believable. The other things with the processing is that the area to the immediate right of the pier (ie. water and sky) appear darker and "browner" than the the main body. Either this is a masking issue, or an issue with the processing, but the two parts of the image don't look like they belong together. Lastly, I found that the whole image appears to be sloping badly to the left (I can tell you did straighten the horizon, but the angle of the incoming wave gives the tilted effect..not much you could do about that!).
I know it appears I am being overly critical (which I probably am), but I do so in an effort to be as honest with my critique as possible and to let you know what I was feeling when I evaluated the image.
If you have any questions/comments about my critique, please feel free to PM me!
Kind regards,
Garry |
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