Revenge

I went to view this shot as I was asked to Critique it and I saw the previous critique. I read through it and felt that the previous critique brought forth some merited points. I will not try to critique those things that the other commented on, but try to deal with other things.

I like the concept of using the shadow as a kind of mask. But I don't get a sense of emotion from her, she seems very bland, like she is just holding the blade up and trying to get it in the right position that you wanted. Muscle structure in her arms shoulder and face to create tension could really create an impact with this shot.

I would also have wanted to see a larger DOF (definition of focus) that passed from the front of the blade through her body, as it seems that her skintone is very soft and out of focus. I don't think that the unsharp mask could have helped this either.

The lighting is a nice idea (I am a big fan of minimal lighting), but the blade is way to hot at the tip. might have been corrected adjusting the angle of the blade. I have had problems with this before with guitars reflecting too much light. Even (as stated before) the forarm is a bit hot for me. I think that the lighting was to close to her and that is the reason for the very dicstinct falloff from light to shadow. More distance of the light source from the model would still have created the impact without the drastic dropoff.

I think that this good idea for a picture and can very easily be further developed. Its a good start but needs to be further refined and hope that you do try this again so that I can see what you can develope this into.

Scott - Magicc Imagery