I tried a different size and overall different theme than before, trying to expand my horizons, lol. I am a swimmer, and like every swimmer, I admire Phelps, and as such: C n' C !
The moment I saw this I thought it was a jet in a snow storm. Especially this portion: I think the lighting is off, his head is lit up while the rest of his body isn't, which is a bit offput. This obscures and distorts the image to the point where... well that^ Also, the text is too bright imo and detracts from the focal... which is either his head or the bright trail of light next to it. Overall, the image seems too dark. I like the contrast, but a little more light on phelps would be better imo.
Actually depending on where the suns placement is it could be totally true. Plus the water distorts light anyways... duh. You should take a swim ER1CO. lol
I know this, but often light streams through the water. That and signatures are meant to be viewable. Just because a bear in the woods at night would be a dark picture doesn't mean you make a signature all black. Alls I'm saying is I mistook it very easily, and that shouldn't happen.
Take into consideration that the lower in the water you are, the less light you recieve, thus the head is less bright than his feet. That's he lighting I put into it, going for realism... with the degree of darkness I added the lighting looked very real to me. As to the text, I chose to make the head/text area the focal, since his face is covered by bubbles and is dark in the stock already, not showing much detail.
It looks to me like his head is definitely brighter than his feet. If his head is dark then his whole body is dark o.0 (I don't understand this lol) Idk, it's just very distorted imo. It should be readily visible as to what the figure is and i couldn't see that at all until I read the text. Now, given that was 10 or so seconds, that's still a pretty big frame imo. I still think it's too dark lol. But yeah, it's just my critique, you can take it or leave it.. to each his own I guess.