Young Writers Society

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This was basically an exercise in contrasts. "Commercial" Christmas lights reflecting on an angel that vaguely looks like she's leading to Heaven.

I don't like how dark it is (still) but there wasn't much of another way to get the light reflection bright enough without doing major editing.

It's a lovely idea, Rosey -- I like the juxtaposition of the "commercial" and the "spiritual" but I can't help thinking that it actually looks rather tasteful.

So, to me at least, the lights are more glowing than gaudy and the angel doesn't seem particularly "traditional" so the contrast isn't perhaps as great as you expected or intended. Also the wall behind the angel seems quite odd -- all the dark brown makes it hard to see the detail of the angel's face.

I see the difficulty with keeping it light (and so having all the detail) and keeping the reflections (which are an important part of the photograph) but in this case I don't think it really works. Could you perhaps try a longer exposure time and use a tripod to make sure it doesn't blur? It might look more effective if the reflections end up quite over-exposed and give a greater contrast?

Pretty picture, nice idea, but I'm afraid it doesn't quite reach the effect you were aiming for. But with ideas like that I'm quite excited to see what else you can come up with!


Charlie

Good mornin', Roseylove.

I'll slice this review into three parts, just to make things easier on myself: artistic conception, power of backgrounds, and blending.

To begin with, let's take the idea of a Christmas Angel. When I think of a Christmas Angel, I immediately think of the story of the angel appearing to Joseph, which, in the mind, includes some brilliant lights. You've brought this into the pic, but kept it so that the lights on the angel don't quite make it brilliant enough. In fact, it nearly feels that the angel is too dark, and the lights, as Charlie said, seem to glow instead of actually illuminating much. In this way, I wish the angel were brighter, to fit my stubborn conception. With this, I think the angel's presence in the picture could be accented a bit more by allowing the glow of the lights to affect the background, but only in proximity to the angel. All-in-all, it just feels a bit drab.

The power of backgrounds is in quite the same boat. I like to think that a background makes the picture what it ultimately is. Now, your subject is very clear, but the background just steals your concept away with the bricking behind the angel. It does a bit of damage to your concept, I think.

And finally, the blending. This isn't so much an issue as much as personal taste, but some of the lights overextend their presence on the angel--I keep looking at the splash of pink on her shoulder and face--and detract from her beauty.

But, aside from these things, beautiful angel. :] It's nice to see something of yours on the forums again~

-Lumi