The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
An unusual bird showed up this afternoon and I grabbed my camera. Though I wasn’t in time for the bird, I had the camera on the porch and the bees were busy in the cone flowers. Finally, I couldn’t resist and decided to try to get something.
Specific Feedback
The bit of green in the upper right seems to bother me a little but I’m not sure. Other than that I wish the petals were a bit more saturated in the paler areas. I played with it some, but it wasn’t cooperating well. Suggestions for how to handle it would be appreciated.
Technical Details
Sony A1 FE 200-600 + 1.4 TC @ 840 mm, f/9, 1/1600, iso 1600. Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped pretty strongly to 4080x2720. A little microcontrast boost to the center of the flower and the bee. I used the point color tool in LR to bump the saturation of the petals and lower luminosity a bit.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
A good second prize – and the new dandelion wine?? (I can recommend Rombauer or Black Kite Chardonnay as alternatives…)
A nice find well-captured. For my taste, you could kill the green in the corner and moderate the brown at the top. Possibly a linear profile could pull more from the petals but a solution is often to darken lights and add colors by pulling down the UR corner of a Curves on two of the three color channels. Then maybe mask that layer if it messes with other areas.
Thanks @Diane_Miller I’ll have to give that processing a try. It may be awhile since I’ll be tied up in our county fair photography exhibit a good share of my time for the next week and a half.
Dennis, I don’t see a thing wrong with either the little bit of green or the brown from the other flower in this. I think the DOF is excellent. I think the saturation level is good, especially on the crown of the flower. Nature is not always perfect, and I wouldn’t want it to be.
There’s a pleasing harmony in the image, with the vibrant bee and coneflower taking center stage. The green in the upper right might initially draw attention (it didn’t for me), but it seems to balance nicely with the green at the bottom left, creating a diagonal flow that guides the eye naturally through the frame.
Dennis: Great POV on the flower and the bee. If you hadn’t mentioned the green corner I would not have remarked on it but I’m still OK with it as is. Great use of your long lens rig. >=))>
