Critique Please

[JBW]

[Daisy Mae]

Hi Brian.

It's a lovely flower and it would look better if you gave it some space so we could properly see its form. It looks all squashed up in that frame. Not keen on the dark corners either as they add to this ...as does the leaf along the bottom.

You could go back and try a different copmposition.

[JBW]

[kdoc856]

Lovely flower, Brian and well worth your efforts. Vignettes are a tricksy business to me- I often like them (almost never the light ones), but they sometimes become oppressive, and I don't know any rules except to go with your gut, and look at it both ways. I agree with Sharon's suggestions, but feel you may have overshot it just a bit- at least in the amount of grass on the left. I often think of plant and tree shots as portraits, and they frequently do well with a 1:1 crop. Not crazy about the corner decorations- you'll not want to compete with your subject for attention.

[JBW]

[MrB]

It is a lovely flower but the background is rather overpowering the flower for me. How about darkening and desaturating it, to make the flower stand out? E.g. -



Philip

[Stagecoach]

Hi Brian,

As already said it's way too cramped. I find there are just too many elements fighting for attention, bits of leaves and grass and the frames do this type of image no favours at all.

Grahame

[Daisy Mae]

Hi Brian,

As already said it's way too cramped. I find there are just too many elements fighting for attention, bits of leaves and grass and the frames do this type of image no favours at all.

Grahame

Totally...

Step away from the fancy 'packaging' and concentrate on getting the product right.

[JBW]

there seems to be a consensus building, beautiful flower, lousy packaging. Okay I will go back and try again. Just had a thought, this is the original photo. I don't know if you would care to take the time to play with it but feel free, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
DSCF2751.jpg (59.2 KB)

[Stagecoach]

Hi Brian,

I am going to be absolutely blunt and to the point 'purely' in an attempt to assist you in your new journey into photography and making the assumption that you want to produce images for which you are going to be pleased and others say WOW.

Firstly, you have a new camera which is very capable of producing 'technically' high quality images. This is supported by both this image and the cicada.

Secondly, what you are going to have to learn is to produce images of high technical quality, BUT, also be appealing to the eye.

In your journey into improving your photography one of the first things you need to concentrate on is getting the shot correct or as correct as possible in camera. If we take this flower image as an example, rather than spend time attempting to manipulate it into an acceptable image a more experienced photographer would have done the following;

a) If wanting to make the petals (which you have captured very well) and I believe its called the stamen the main subject they would have removed the tatty leaves out of the way.
b) they would have adjusted the setting in the camera so that the petals and stamen are in sharp focus but the background grass is out of focus (blurry) to make the flower stand out.
c) they would not take an image with a date stamp on which may have to be removed, if possible later.
d) they would have framed it (positioning) close to what they want for the final work.

If all the above had been done before pressing the shutter there would be minimal work to do later other than very standard basic procedures 90% of us do.

If we also look at the three images you have 'adapted' there is a definite decline in the quality, sharpness, appearance or whatever you want to call it of the most significant part, the petals.

Have a look at some of the flower shots in the 'Post you Flowers section'. You will see images that range from what I call seed catalogue ones to works of art and decide what you want to produce and then ask us questions to assist you learning how to do it.

As for the original image you have posted for others to 'play' with it's a very low resolution of 59kb and no amount of playing is going to turn this into a high image quality appealing masterpiece but may give some ideas of crops.

Now going back to the original image you posted. Make another exactly the same with a bit more space above and to the left side retaining that excellent detail of the petals. No fancy vignettes and no fancy frames, but if you can not resist a frame put a white drop-shadow one on or post it without and I will add one.

Hope this helps .................................

Grahame

[JBW]

Hi Grahame, blunt is always (as my wife will attest) useful when dealing with me. Strangely it never crossed my mind to adjust the leaves or other things before taking the shot. Is there somewhere online that i can read about camera settings in a fairly non technical way i really have no clue about 'manual' operation. I will look at the flower section. In a nutshell... i want to capture and pass on beauty. I know that sounds just so corny but it is the truth.


B

[Stagecoach]

Hi Brian,

Perhaps 'blunt' was not the most appropriate of words but I thought at this stage of learning rather than give a long winded description of why and how to every aspect of photography without knowing your knowledge to date may all get a bit overwhelming. Hence a few specifics seemed like a good idea based on your posted images.

There are an excellent set of tutorials here under 'Photography Tutorials' and I suggest first off you concentrate on the first two sections. It is very important that you learn the relationships and their affect of the three main variables, ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. This will teach you how to use your camera in the manual mode if you wish to but also more importantly give you an understanding of what's happening in the auto modes.

As a single example, auto macro mode may have a very good idea of what aperture it should use but how on earth would it know what to base the shutter speed on if it does not know if the cameras on a tripod, your hand holding capabilities or if wind or legs are moving your subject around

Grahame

[jcuknz]

I try to work out the essentials of the subject and concentrate on that. Philip is getting there but I would go tighter and the 'ear' [ Spock's Ear ] is the interesting aspect of the flower. Some people seem to have yet to learn this and cover their loose compositions with the excuse, it shows the environment.

If the camera is capable of it ... it maybe worth shooting a bit loose as when you crop in editing you do not loose as much depth of field as going in close for the tight composition A habit I am trying to get out of since I learnt this recently.


This involved rotating the image, Philips's, 30 degrees right and cloning some of the grass to cover where rotation lost me picture.

[JBW]

and the cloning got rid of the pestle?

[MrB]

Philip is getting there...

Thank you, JC - I'll take that as a compliment! (and you're one of the few people to spell Philip correctly ).

Philip

[Wavelength]

i would have liked the first image itself if the black shade did not enter into the image, in the first case. I liked Philip's edit also( i am the second to spell "Philip" correctly )

[jcuknz]

Thank you, JC - I'll take that as a compliment! (and you're one of the few people to spell Philip correctly ).

Philip

It was intended as such ... and I checked the spelling because I have fingers with minds of their own
I am often called JG so I know how you feel.

[JBW]

Hi WL, the first image is definitely the best flower shot. I was just working with the packaging on the rest of them