OK, here goes:
1. Too busy for me. I like the capture of the water droplets on the petal and I like shallow depth of field. But in this image, there is just too much competition from other elements both in and out of focus. Lower right is an OOF reddish blur distracting. The yellow flower is too OOF for me. I'd re-compose and choose the key element you wish to draw attention to, carefully framing and or cropping to remove distracting elements. Close-up shots like these usually require a tripod.
2.Color play is there, but again, I dont feel there is enough of a theme to organize the image, and the shallow depth of field, while effective to create a soft background, works against you in the tangle of branches.
3. I like your using the light and shadows to frame your image. I am drawn to the twig with two leaves middle right, and would like to see that as a focal point of the image, with less distraction from the twigs. Good choice of DOF. Lighting is harsh. Little tonal range; perhaps a BW variation on this image, recomposed, would work. But again, I think you need to better define the central element of your compositions, minimize distractions and choose DOF carefully.
Hope this wasnt too harsh.
Scott
Not at all...I like hearing the critical views of others - yours were taken quite well because you also offered up an alternative for composition or re-shooting. Thanks for the helpful suggestions...
I'm glad it was helpful.
Here is a BW (slightly duotoned) version of your last image. I couldnt really come up with a crop to highlight the leaves as much as I would like, and I still think the image needs a reshoot. But, it gives you an idea of BW alternative.
In the brighter areas I reduced the contrast with a reverse S curve.
My take on these, I saw these earlier today, just didn't get around to them. I'm fairly new to openly critiquing.
Overall I was thinking the same lines as Scott. Without trying to be too critical,
1 - I'd like to see more depth of field. It bothers me that the yellow part of the flower is out of focus. I like that the water droplets are there though. I like the colors of the pink on a blue background. I'll agree that the reddish blur in the lower right isn't ideal, but I wouldn't be too critical there, as long as it stays out of focus. Colors are key here, and I like em.
2 - This is a hard one, I've tried to shoot stuff like this before. I'd like to see the focal plane in front a bit, I'm not a fan of the foreground twigs being out of focus. Again, I'd stop down to a smaller aperture and get a little bit more depth of field. The worry with doing that for me is that the lines, while independently interesting, will crowd and be too busy.
3 - This image at least on my screen is too warm, and also over exposed. I'd like to see the shadows nice and black and see the texture in the wood. Those leaves on the right is interesting, A quick fix without reshooting I would try not-quite grayscale - cool the white balance down, decrease exposure, increase contrast, go into HSL Saturation tab and increase the orange, and eliminate all others. I'm not sure how much I like it but it would help isolate the leaves on the right without reshooting. I don't have an easy way to upload photos here yet, so I can't show you. For reshooting, maybe get an angle so the shade lines converge a little and so that there can be some limiting depth of field to help isolate the leaves.
Happy shooting! Looks like you had fun.
Edited by Marc Severo on Feb 03, 2008 at 11:16 PM GMT
Thanks Marc - I like the edit you did. I was playing around with the photo some more in LR and ended up with another version similar to this. A sepia-toned version also held some appeal too - will post those later this evening when I am back at my computer (at the in-laws right now...)
1st - it seems a bit too busy. I think you should have got the whole leaf that is in focus in the frame with a little space. The right hand side red sticking out thing is distracting. It would desaturate a bit and darken the highlights to improve this shot. I will remove if you like.
2nd does not seem to have a main subject because you used a very shot dept and it goes in and out of focus as you go up the picture . I think for this shot more depth is required.
3rd the black and white (sbeme) is much better for me. I think because it downplays all the busy stuff leaving the frame in the color picture. For me prominent stuff leaving the frame is distracting. The black and white fixes it. Cropping more off the bottom also helped.
Great feedback here Scott - thanks a lot! (Nice to know where things are working and not as much - gives me areas to focus on - sorry for the pun - and improve!)
