"Religious Man" Philippines - Please Critique

[PhotogJeff]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/4122973926_fd40c0b164_b.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

Neat rosary. Wonder if he ever wears it. Must weigh a ton.

The textures of the building and the man alone make the picture.

There is a sub-picture in here by cropping out the bottom half and all of the rosary. You then have a picture that is even stronger.

Congratulations!

[mikekelley]

I love it, but I don't know how I feel about the photoshop-filter effect thing that's going on. Im not sure if it's jpeg compression or a filter, but i'd like to see this without it somehow.

[AlphaChicken]

Yeah this looks posterized, or already cropped too much. I disagree with you here Bobert. I think the rosary beads share the story of who the man is. Part of the image for sure.

[jetcode]

I believe this image should be printed straight. There is enough interest. I think the highlights are a slightly blown and may require a little correcting. The design is nice. The setting is nice. The context and story is nice.

[ScottKCooper]

This is a wonderful shot!

[Corser1]

This is definitely an interesting shot but in some way it tends to represent two images side by side. What I mean is that there is a noticeable difference between the building textures. The textures on the left side of the image are softer especially the door and on the right with the rosary you get a different feel for the textures as you see more contrast in the shades and overall detail in the wood. The size of the rosary itself looks like it's a zoomed in shot. Another reason that in my opinion it looks like two shots is that both sides of the image have emphasis and draw the eye to two different subjects. Ether way though, nice shot!!!

[AlphaChicken]

One of the definitions of good design is to have characteristics that make an image not too easy to "solve", but also not too hard. If this image were cropped into two different images, or one, it would be boring.

I could instantly look at either and be like "Oh! Rosary beads on a wall!" or "Oh! A man!" Bad design.

With both of the "separate" images in one here as is, I look see two planes in the image, and then piece together that the man must be religious in some way. Good design.

[PhotogJeff]

Thank you all for your comment/critiques. This shot is one view and is not two merged images. The shanty he was living in was built from many different materials. I'm sure he used whatever was available to him. Personally, I like the contrasting textures and the two points of interest. Thanks again guys, I really do appreciate your comments.