What's wrong with one of my personal favorite photos?

This is one of my favorite pics I took this night. Strangely enough, it doesn't get a lot of traction on flickr, despite my personal attachment to it. I think it captured the spirit of the night perfectly, there was a lot of people, a lot of energy in the crowd, lots of vintage porsches among other cars, lots of activity on this road behind where people were driving by. Why is this photo not getting the same response as my others that night, despite being my personal favorite? Is there something about this photo that seems off? Unappealing? Too much blue?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CPvN​ZH

I don't see anything wrong with it.
That pic seems to have similar # of views as the others in your feed.

JMG703 wrote in post #17953743
This is one of my favorite pics I took this night. Strangely enough, it doesn't get a lot of traction on flickr, despite my personal attachment to it. I think it captured the spirit of the night perfectly, there was a lot of people, a lot of energy in the crowd, lots of vintage porsches among other cars, lots of activity on this road behind where people were driving by. Why is this photo not getting the same response as my others that night, despite being my personal favorite? Is there something about this photo that seems off? Unappealing? Too much blue?
...

For me, the car is too hard up against the left edge of the frame and is facing ever-so-slightly out that side of the frame; this leaves the image feeling cramped and out of balance. The lighting across the car is inconsistent and from the back, and the people look more like you shot this against an oddly-lit mural. Having some fill light to help balance out the backlighting, as well as give you some "catch lights" in the headlamps would have helped here. Alot of your other shots from the evening show off the personality of the cars and have the frame a little more balanced out.

The background effect is very cool, and I can understand why you like it; it doesn't really pair well with the car, though.

Snydremark wrote in post #17953787
For me, the car is too hard up against the left edge of the frame and is facing ever-so-slightly out that side of the frame; this leaves the image feeling cramped and out of balance. The lighting across the car is inconsistent and from the back, and the people look more like you shot this against an oddly-lit mural. Having some fill light to help balance out the backlighting, as well as give you some "catch lights" in the headlamps would have helped here. Alot of your other shots from the evening show off the personality of the cars and have the frame a little more balanced out.

The background effect is very cool, and I can understand why you like it; it doesn't really pair well with the car, though.

Very helpful, thanks. As for lighting, it's all available light and we are under a bridge, so there was very little light on the car itself. Maybe I can play with the exposure of the car to make it pop more? Do some color grading of he people, so it doesn't clash with the colors of the car? I have a hard time figuring out the balance as in if a background should be subdued to let the viewer focus on the subject, or just make everything flashy and eye-catching.

Does that image strike you as one that would adorn your living room...not mine.

While I like it as it is....as mentioned you could tone down the people and lights from the other cars behind the Porsche. That would make it pop a bit more

JMG703 wrote in post #17953797
Very helpful, thanks. As for lighting, it's all available light and we are under a bridge, so there was very little light on the car itself. Maybe I can play with the exposure of the car to make it pop more? Do some color grading of he people, so it doesn't clash with the colors of the car? I have a hard time figuring out the balance as in if a background should be subdued to let the viewer focus on the subject, or just make everything flashy and eye-catching.

Yeah, definitely saw what the lighting was in the other pics; tough shoot, but you did a good job of making lemonade Maybe a little, selective shadow lifting on the area of the hood where there's a hard shadow falling across the passenger side corner and the driver's side mirror to help soften the shadowing there.

Something to play around with, and see what feel about it, would be to *slightly* desaturate the car, too, so that it stylistically blends a little better with the background/people. That might give it a little more cohesive feeling that is better received? Worth a try, anyway.

Snydremark wrote in post #17953826
Yeah, definitely saw what the lighting was in the other pics; tough shoot, but you did a good job of making lemonade Maybe a little, selective shadow lifting on the area of the hood where there's a hard shadow falling across the passenger side corner and the driver's side mirror to help soften the shadowing there.

Something to play around with, and see what feel about it, would be to *slightly* desaturate the car, too, so that it stylistically blends a little better with the background/people. That might give it a little more cohesive feeling that is better received? Worth a try, anyway.

Thanks so much, now that you point out the shadows, I cannot unsee... lol. I'll try it and see how it goes.

chauncey wrote in post #17953819
Does that image strike you as one that would adorn your living room...not mine.

It might be more suited as a framed photo in the garage or mancave. Any tips as to what would make it in your living room, or maybe home office wall?

Garage...maybe....man cave, is that a place where crude, ill mannered, slobs, dwell

chauncey wrote in post #17953862
Garage...maybe....man cave, is that a place where crude, ill mannered, slobs, dwell

It's a place to drink single malt whiskey neat while sitting in a comfortable chair.

I don't think I'd ever put it on my living room wall, but that doesn't mean it isn't a well-crafted image. I think it is, and it has a certain uniqueness that sets it off from a lot of work I've seen here.

As Snydermark suggested perhaps the car could be toned down a bit....it's just a little too intense. But it has a certain appealing abstract nature to it. You took a different conceptual approach: We are often used to seeing stationary crowds of people watching blurs of cars as they fly by the stands. Here you have presented us with just the opposite. The car is taking a break as the world flies by

Thanks for sharing. Stu

JMG703 wrote in post #17953828
Thanks so much, now that you point out the shadows, I cannot unsee... lol. I'll try it and see how it goes.

Heh, good luck. To see what triggered my thoughts on desaturating the car, start a Reply on this thread and then scroll up the page so you can see the image with the sites overlay on top of it. It sort of makes the car appear a little more matte and seems to fit the image better

Also, another thing to try would be to work on the shadowing at the front of the car, across the license plate. Notice how blue the license plate is compared to the white number circle on the hood? Both of those objects *should* appear similarly white, ideally.

Thanks! Yup, as soon as you pointed out the shadows I started to notice a lot of inconsistencies with the lighting on the car.

What each of us finds attractive varies with each of us. Matters of taste.

I don't see anything technically wrong with the photo. I don't care for it either. I wouldn't be so anxious about people not liking it either!