Broke some rules

Breaking the rules, that is!

Best regards Jim!

PDE

Jim,

Nope, I'm not getting into it. It just looks like everything under her mouth is out of focus or that you had a real problem with your depth of field.

I assume you just wanted comments on the out of focus look and not a general critique.

Mark

Mark. Yes thats right. Its a look I really like in some photographs but I cant say why. I used the same technique in the shot of the cases I have. Polly Chandler uses it to magical effect in a great many of her photographs.

It's too much easy a 3 for this image if a person reads only superficially: for me a good idea&result!

Very nice original work, Jim!

With best regards,

Ruud.

Hans-Peter, thanks for your comments, they are helpfull. To answer all your questions would take up a lot of space here but I can say briefly how I rate photos. If I think a photo is average I will rate it 4. I try not to let my own taste get in the way of rating. As an example, if I was rating a colour shot of a football match (which I dont get at all) the fact it was something I didnt particularly like shouldnt mean I wouldnt rate it high. On the other hand, a black and white nude may still be rated low if, for example, a flash lead was visible in the shot. That is obviously the short answer.

If I had to rate the above photo, I think I would give it a 4 or possibly 5.