Student work

[MiniChris]

Summer study...most of which are of her own design and making. My direction to her was to fill the frame, and double check the focus, then see how far she could step out of the box...relatively in comfort.

I do not want to make commnet but would greatly appreciate some good criticism from the forum so she can move forward. She's pretty thick skinned and on occasion, has even been known to learn something from somebody, then use it in future endeavors.

She is using a Nikon D40 with the 18-55 kit lens and a Tamron 70-300 Macro Zoom (on tripod).

She is pretty much enamored with trying to capture water droplets (Willie, you've created a monster) and I think is starting to get the hang of it. So...fire away, guys!

Fungi


Pear


Fungi in the rain

[Hans]

Great stuff. Pass on my appreciation to your student.
I really find it hard to critique an image as I am only really imposing on it my own subjective preferences. It is art and it belongs to the taker. If the taker is happy with the result, who really cares what others think? She looks like she is shooting for herself which is exactly what she should do. If she finds that others appreciate her work, bonus!

I like the last one, but maybe it is a bit noisy or soft and an attempt has been made to oversharpen to compensate...might actually be way off though. If this is what she intended for the image, then excellent work and good on her!

[Donald]

I always think it's more difficult to critique each image in its own right when it's presented alongside one or more others. You (I) tend to end up make comparisons, or identifying weaknesses in one on the basis of strengths in another.

However, with that caveat out of the way ............

The first point I'd make is that I don't think #2 works so well as an image. I acknowledge that there is texture in there, but I don't think we have a strong enough contribution from line and tone. It's a bit of an anonymous mass.

And that is where the 'compare and contrast comes in, because #1 and #3 are, I think, very different.

#1 is packed full of line, tone and texture. I think it's an excellent example of the photographer 'seeing' the image. Clearly we are beign taken in very close in order to focus on the detailed structure of the plant. And it works beautifully, in my opinion. I think we experience a very strong visual impact.

Similarly in #3. We have the complete contrast of the light, flowing water and the more substantial object (the fungus) on which it is landing. In this one, the light, shapes and tone in teh background is almost as compelling as the main subject itself, and , in being so, does take some attention away. A more bland background might have thrown even more attention onto the water falling on the fungus.

[MiniChris]

Good advice as to posting one at a time..odd, your thoughts about the pear...it is one of my favorites, but then I am looking for "assignment" qualities and you are giving a much broader critique. In regards to that, I've revamped the second post and inserted a totally new piece and will post a new one each day until she can post them for herself.

[jiro]

Chris, would you be kind enough to share what exactly was the assignment you gave to her? Was it just simply to fill the frame with a subject or was there some extra guidelines? Thanks.

[MiniChris]

These were just Fill the Frame...was looking for strong compositional studies combined with differing Depth of Field options..not all the same shot, same aperture/shutter.