The Price of (the) Silver (Bullet)

Curious as to your opinions. Thanks, James

It's a very good shot, handled very well. The tone you have chosen accents perfectly the mood you have captured. The room is real, the content is beautifully and serenely ordinary, and you've expressed it in a very extra-ordinary way. It's very creative and thoughtful.

I love the coloring, very fitting. You have captured a true splice of life. Interesting.

Cool photo! Great mood! The only thing I could criticise would be that strange light emanating from behind the couch right behind his elbow. It looks like you have a lamp behind the couch. Great image!

Jan, that's a night light. I couldn't do anything with it at the time. I could PS it away, maybe. But this is how it was shot. Long exposure, handheld. Maybe 1/15 or 1/8.

Why do anonymous people give ratings? What purpose does that serve?

James-- From what I gather, the powers that be feel (and to a certain extent it seems true) that some identified raters give high ratings in the hopes that they will be rewarded with high ratings themselves in return. If you check out some of the people who are consistently giving out 6's (and I do mean consistently), you'll notice they are very popular people. So someone surmises that anonymous raters will be more truthful. I doubt that's the case. Anonymous raters hide behind their anonymity and often give out 3/3's with abandon. My solution would be to allow people to rate anonymously, but insist that they give a two-sentence critique along with their rating to show they've thought about what they're doing and are not just sitting there hitting the 3 button. Who knows? There doesn't seem to be an ideal solution. --Fred

haha - everywhere you go on PN, this topic of rating will be discussed - I actually find the anonymous rates to be more fair - Fred is right - some of those 6/6 are handed out like halloween candy - and to me that is not fair either if it is not a good representation of the merits of an image. Thanks for the explanation on this - darn good image - even with the nightlight. I hope you found my rate to be fair. We can never know for sure - everybody has different tastes. I consider it an honour if one of my images gets rated at all - doubly so if somebody leaves a comment. It shows that somebody has taken an interest. Happy shooting!

Jan, thank you for taking the time to look at this photo. There's a reason why I'm suspicious of the anonymous ratings of 3/3. It has a lot more to do with the subject in the photo. I'm glad that there are genuine people who are open and helpful. Thank you for being one of those.