Portraits/Expressions

I agree with you, Gabriel, that the scores are typically underrated... at least I feel that way about the scores for my pictures. :-) I realize it's not practical for those who score a photo as 2 (needs work) to make a comment on all thousand entries for exactly why they think a photo needs work. But I wish there were more comments.... especially from a few people who have a good reason for scoring a picture as "needing work."

That said, I'll offer my thoughts on your picture. First of all, to have a current score of 1.95 means that at least someone gave it a score of 1, which is a snap shot. That's ridiculous. A snap shot is captured with little or no intent for composition, background, or relationship between elements. A snap shot is generally a picture of only one thing with disregard to everything else in the picture... commonly called distractions. So keep in mind that there are people scoring pictures with no sense of the scoring guidelines. And I suspect a lot of pictures are scored as a "2" with no more critical thought about the picture beyond whether they like it or not.

The fact that you lowered your camera position below normal eye level is the first thing that impresses me as an image given some thought. The side profile and position of hands elevates the photo to a more professional level. The building structure was probably in your plan for composition, but more on that later.

It's the lighting where I feel like the image could be improved. Granted you're shooting natural light and so you get what you get. And some people are happy to leave it at that. In other words, natural can be better than creative or flash lighting for many people. But while you're describing warm afternoon tones, I'm seeing cool tones. Okay, the gray color of his coat is a warm gray, the background has a warm direct light of the sun.

But there's something about this image that's cold to me. Maybe the fact that he's wearing a heavy coat implies cold. The sky is a pale blue. I think the color of the man's skin is a smidge (tiny bit) blue, especially in the hands. In reality the colors all fit together pretty well... certainly an honest representation of the scene. But the overall effect is sort of flat, monochromatic image that's struggling to come alive. It's lacking that extra level of contrast and impact that a flash could have accomplished.

I also feel like there's too much sky and building structure above the subject, and too much coat below the fingers. I rarely like 3:2 aspect ratio vertical portraits. I feel like they invariably lead the viewer's eye away from the subject's face. So that's a summary of the reason for my "2" vote. As they say, take it with a grain of salt. It's only my opinion.