What can be better here

[Gabriel]

Hello,

This is my first post here.
Photo is a hobby for me and I “snapped” for a number of years with some cameras. Since one – two years ago (or so), I have been trying to take some pictures or “face lifting” a few with Photoshop Elements.
Below you can see one shoot which scored low in a “mini competition”.

Now: grateful if you load your cannons and shoot hard. No mercy, I’ll take all your missiles and learn.

Thank you in advance,
Gabriel

[shaknbak]

Welcome Gabriel.

I like you, am new to the site and even more new to photography so I'm afraid I can't offer much in the way of constructive criticism other than I actually like the picture. I like the lighting, the depth of field and the detail. As far as the mini competitions go I would take that with a grain of salt. While you can vote for a number of pictures, you may have been competing against some great pictures. While a Corvette is an awesome car, when it's compared to a Lamborghini, Ferrari or Bugatti it's just a car.

Gregg

[Viana]

I think that it is a very nice capture, Gabriel. The only thing is. . .there seem to be two focal points. Do you want the eye to focus on both flowers? In general, the eye (the Western eye) moves from left to right. You may want to consider a bit of blurring and darker lighting for the flower that is not the main subject.




So, here are 2 possibilities that I think might be more effective. Focus on one flower, blur and vignette. Crop via rule of thirds:

[pat brennan]

hi Gabriel ,i agree with Viana but i would crop out the flower on the left.While it might be leading the eye out of the photo i think their is more energy about the right hand flower.Nice capture .

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi gabriel,

on the other hand i think cropping would spoil the image and think that the blurring done by Viana works well.

[Gabriel]

Thank you for answers.
I take the point with double focal points initiated by Viana, as well as blurring the right flower. I’ll also play with cutting the left flower, as Pat suggested, although the remaining one (right) is not very well focused.

The “story” behind will suffer anyway - no “sisters” anymore (or at least not equal as “sisters”) – but I assume that sometimes one can not have all in one; the subject itself might be “Corvette” level, impossible to be changed change in “Bugatti” – as Gregg said.

Thank you,
Gabriel

[Viana]

Well, look at it this way, Gabriel. One "sister" always takes the lead.

[tbob]

Hi Gabriel: Although I am using the mini competitions as means to get some assessment of the reaction of a small sample of people to my images, I do as Gregg has said and take it with a grain of salt. An image has to grab the viewer immediately and stand out relative to the rest. It is pretty subjective and is definitely not an authoritative opinion on your image or your skills

This is a good image, well composed, well lit and interesting. Obviously 40 to 60 people ranked it lower than others, most probably because it is an image of two flowers, a rather common subject, and some other images caught their eye and took their vote. I think it is technically and artistically good; leave it alone it is a good job.