Round 5 Theme: Snowy
Winner: Noesis Phobos
Critiques
Flare:
Nadede Lasalle: This picture is what I wanted to see from you. It looks fantastic! The colors are crisp and your outfit goes well with the background. You stand out and the brazier behind you adds a warming effect to the picture. For me, the only nit-pick I have would seem like your face is a little bright for the picture. Also, just from your pose it looks like you have no arms. Not a big deal but since the top half of your body is around the darker part of the picture it just looks a bit strange. Over all great job this week.
Noesis Phobos: This is probably one of my favorite backgrounds this week. Gives me the shivers just looking at it. Looks really cold in that picture! The colors tie in really well together and your outfit blends so well with the background. Which is a good thing. I actually had you lower at first but after actually looking at your picture you had more things right then you did wrong. You gave me something brighter than your last two and something that makes you outshine your other pictures in this contest. My favorite from you yet.
Doki Kodoki: This is a pleasant picture to look at. The joy on your face as your taking in the snowy weather just warms me up inside. The placement of your little little lala in between those two rocks work. Fills the background up a little but still gives your photo that soft touch it needs to make you stand out. While sometimes I don’t like outfits to be the same color as the background, you chose red as an accent color to tie in with the background. A nice touch. Great work this week.
Kusuh Valentione: This is a nice concept, but the filter ruins it for me. Your character looks like he’s about to freeze to death and the purple hue takes away from your scenery a lot of me. While the hue works for the scenery, it doesn’t work for your character. Since your hair is already pink, it looks a bit neon and unrealistic.
Stephen Fairbrook: This is a nice one where the scenery goes great and ties in with your outfit very well. I love the Ishgard scene and you really enjoying yourself. While the lighting on your character is a tad bright, it still works and looks fine. Try to find a nice balance with the lighting. It’s a hard one to figure out. But sometimes natural lighting or even the sun minion would work better than that sometimes god-awful light in gpose.
Rivienne Cotrlaint: I was instantly drawn to your picture the moment I saw it. Hands down my favorite this week. It has the right balance of color and the lighting is perfect here. The dark outfit with the white accents of the sleeves, glove and bow help you stand out. The scenery is pleasant as well. I really enjoyed your picture this week.
WoW Wie: A nice fun picture that I’m surprised no one else decided to try and recreate. You have a lot of fun and lighthearted pictures and this one is my favorite from you. You used your background models nicely, a used a nice simple background to keep the focus on the real action. Great work this week.
Gangly:
Nadede Lasalle – A lovely warm fire on a cold wintry night is the best! Your outfit combination is quite interesting; the top fits perfectly with your snowy background, while the pants and boots add an adventurous flair to it. The trim of the top matches with the bottom of your shoes, and the white of your pants matches with the highlights in your hair! I like that you are standing higher up from the ground; I can imagine you taking in the cold and quiet peacefully. The fire behind you is also a nice contrast to the soft snow in the background. The pose you chose is fine itself, but the facial expression and angle are a little odd. Your expression appears pouty, and because of the angle of your body, it looks like you are about to fall off the beacon! I didn’t notice it at first, but the faint hint of the moon is a nice touch to the shot!
Noesis Phobos – So bright! The lighting on the ice is beautiful, and the white of the background is a great contrast to the black parts of your outfit. The snowflakes on your pants are a nice addition to the snowy theme, and the frayed edges of your boots match nicely with your poncho. Your pose and expression are playful, and I love the light from the ice hitting your back; it gives you a nice glow. The camera angle gives the background and ice a nice tilt while keeping you vertical. The shot is well-lit, but something odd is happening with your hand over the ice. Because there is no light on it (like your other hand), I cannot see any texture in the glove, and it appears almost like latex (personal observation of course!). I think just even a smidgen of light could help define it more!
Doki Kodoki – I really like the lighting of this shot! While most of the shot is white, it’s not overpowering. The bright 3 filter gives the colors a more gray tone, evoking a calm and almost sad mood. Your outfit matching the white of the background and the red of the formations is a great addition! You look relaxed with your pose, and I’m liking how you placed yourself in between the two formations in the back; not only is there an interesting sweeping motion with the gradually increasing height, but it also frames you nicely and helps you pop out! I would have liked to see your feet because I can see the beginning of your shadow on the ground, but the composition of this shot was executed well!
Kusuh Valentione – I’d like to know what’s under that snow too! Your pose fits nicely with your theme, and the emotion on your face lets me imagine your pondering and curiosity! I like the white and red of your outfit mimicking the colors in the background, and the many bumps and curves of the formations in the background help to further accentuate the strangeness mentioned in your caption. While the lighting on you is not too bright and not too dim, the color is a bit odd. It stands out a bit too much against the more cool and darker colors of your shot; I am thinking either white or red light would make more sense, as they could act as reflections from your surroundings!
Stephen Fairbrook – Lightly falling snow and bright lights, I like it! I love the lights and how your background surrounds you; it gives the shot a lively feel! Your position in your shot is nice as well; we can see a good amount of the background, but you remain the focus! Standing up on one of the roofs (at least I think that’s what you’re standing on hahaha!) also feels nostalgic. Your outfit combination works quite well; the top is fancy, but the gloves and pants help to tone it down. I am completely in love with how the colored marker filter made the colors extremely vivid, especially in your hair, but I also think it made your face and hands a bit too bright. However, the brightness also does help attract the viewer’s attention straight to you!
Rivienne Cotrlaint – I’m getting mixed emotions about this shot, but that’s a good thing! You look so calm and composed with your expression and pose, yet your background and the black of your outfit adds the elements of loneliness and a silent beauty to the shot. Your gaze looks confident yet dreamy, and the filter works incredibly well to give the shot a tasteful gray tone. Your position in the shot frames you nicely, and the smaller mountains in the back make you look powerful. Also, nice outfit choice (I actually use the same top and gloves for my BLM hahaha!); it’s almost like a mix of good and evil with the white and black!
Wow Wie – Ohhhh a snowball fight, what fun! Your expression is bubbly and you like you’re having a great time with your friends! The red of your poncho helps you pop out nicely, and the slightly faded background has a nice effect to it! The snowballs add a cool effect that almost appears to be a lens flare, giving the shot a playful, energetic feel. The right side feels a bit empty because your friends are more to the center and left of the shot, and everyone throwing snowballs at the camera and being in the same pose looks a bit unnatural for the playfulness of the shot. Unfortunately, /gpose synchs everyone up, but I think if you froze only your pose and all of you were facing each other in some manner, it would appear more natural; after all, it’s a snowball fight!
Katarh:
Nadede – A beautiful night time shot brings out the snow and the delicate frost covered trees. Closed eye shots are a risk, but your caption’s explanation of “reminisce” combined with your pose brings it all together – fond memories in the snow. The angle of everything feels a bit warped; be careful with the camera controls not to distort things too much. The usage of the pastel filter lets the reds and oranges pop against the darker background, drawing the eye to the left side of the image.
Noesis – This is my favorite outfit for this week. I love the usage of the starlight tights and the boots together! The strengthened effects filter makes the colorful ice pop out, and I really love your playful pose. There is so much joy in this image.
Doki – This is the starkest image this week, and I really love the coordination of the bright white outfit with a red hat and sash against the blood red rocks of Boulder Downs. Since you’re a Lalafell, it may have been possible to get your feet into this shot, and it might have been worth sacrificing the close up to do it. The bright effect brings out the contrast to the maximum, clearly enhancing this shot in the best way possible.
Rivienne – A more somber mood in the snow calls for a darker filter, and somehow the Bright 3 filter manages to do it. I love the contrast of your character’s mourning clothes against the snow. That said, a less fuzzy background might have made this shot stronger – I know the bones are back there, but the blur from the focus makes them almost impossible to discern.
Wow Wie – Our only group shot this week is a brilliant idea – a synchronized snowball fight! I love the use of focus on this, so that the main character is obvious even with the extras, and the rest of the image has a foggy feel. Your bright red top also lets you jump out from the background. Although the character is dead center once again, the slightly off balance pose from the snowball throw makes up for it, as well as the balancing effect from the extras being on the left.
Kusuh – Thinking…. thinking…. I love your character’s expression here, contemplating the secrets of the snow. I’m not sold on the usage of strengthened effects in this shot, as it makes your brightly colored outfit blend into the brightly colored background a bit too much. The slightly off-center position is perfect, but then it comes down to balancing the composition, and if you are going to lean to the right, you should consider having your busiest part of the background on the left instead.
Stephen – Colored Marker can do such interesting things, even to Falcon’s Nest! Interesting doesn’t always mean better, though, and I’m not sure the selection of this filter enhances the shot in quite the way you wanted. Perfect outfit choice for this location, but the tilt of your head is too much, and I can’t see the expression on your character’s face at all.