Edit: I’ve re-edited the file and added a new version of the image. It has a different crop and I blurred the branch on the left in Photoshop using “Lens Blur”. I think the new version is better but I found another Lily image that I like more and I’ll post that here on Monday (hopefully).
New version:
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I was working on editing this image the other day when our neighborhood experienced a power outage. My computer shut off and I lost my edits on the master file and all I have left is the original raw and this small web sized image so I will need to reedit this at some point.
Specific Feedback
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the colour and the composition (and cropping). Do you feel that the composition is a bit too safe and uninteresting? I kind of feel I should have tried something more creative…
Tom, I like this. To me it is like the spotlight of light and focus is right on the bloom and the tree needles (which helps the viewer to better know the BG), everything else is oof and darker.
Tom, too bad you will have to rework the image. That said, while I like the exposure and the focus on the lily, it is a rather ‘safe’ composition. In fact for me the sharp leaves of the pine tree create a tension to the sharp flower - and as they are in front my eye is pulled back and forth between them and the blossom too much. By changing position, you might have been able to put that branch in a different plane and thereby gotten it more out of focus. A vertical composition would also have been a good choice here, to reduce the background, as you have a lot of it here, and emphasize that stalk and blossom by isolating it more. I would encourage you to explore situations like this a bit more, making the ‘standard’ images first and they going beyond to see what else you might do. Still, it’s a nice image as is.
Tom, I really like how the lily stands out against that dark BG. It’s aglow! The colors are great and well balanced with the main subject being clearly visible. I don’t know if I would have used the current crop you presented. That little bush on the left side, although not in focus, leaves my eyes going out of the frame. A 4x5 crop or some cloning there would eliminate that problem. As for the needles competing with the lily, I agree with @brenda_tharp . I would also explore making it less strong than it is presently. Nevertheless, whether you think it is a safe composition or not, I find the image and your edit very striking and simply beautiful.
@Shirley_Freeman Thank you, and I’m glad that you like this. I was really attracted to vibrance of the lily against the darker, cooler greens so I’m glad that’s coming across.
@brenda_tharp Thank you so much for your invaluable feedback and honesty about the comp. I appreciate feedback like this 1000x more than just getting meaningless “likes” on other social media. Thank you for the suggestions and you are right in that I should slow down and explore scenes like this more. It’s a really good lesson and hopefully I won’t forget next time I’m out shooting and get caught up in the moment. That happens to me sometimes… I ‘know’ something but then I just forget about it
Thank you too @Egídio for your feedback! I think your suggested crop is a really good idea and will definitely apply that when I re-edit this image. Even though the comp isn’t ideal I still want to make the image be the best it can be.
I like the beautiful colors of the Lily, I also like the softness of the stem and the BG behind the flower is very nice. I do agree with the others that the L side distracts the eye, especially the in focus pine branch. Like Brenda mentioned, a vertical shot would have been nice. You might get away with a vertical crop and do some removing on the L, but that might be more than you want to attempt. I think you did a nice job on the Lily. Sorry you lost your edit. I’ve had that happen to me and it’s a real pain. Sometimes PS will get a chance to recover it. I don’t know about LR.
Hey Tom, I’ve been meaning to get to this and just haven’t, so sorry. This looks to be a Wood lily in bloom and I know from experience how hard they are to photograph. Spindly, top-heavy and usually buried in lots of undergrowth. I think you’ve done a nice job isolating this one and the colors look natural. The spotlight effect is a bit obvious, but could be smoothed into a more subtle look. The positioning is awkward to me since it seems to be competing with the juniper (?) branch and I wonder that is so prominent. An interesting perspective for next time might be to underline the lily with the branch - sort of create a stage that could either be blurry or in focus depending on how it lined up and the sort of mood you wanted to create. Definitely post other views if you took them - these are such cool flowers and I hardly ever see them.
@Donna_Callais thank you so much for taking the time to comment! The more I look at the image the more I see how much the left side distracts. I will see if I have anything that’s a bit better when I go to re-edit this but I have my doubts. That’s ok though, it’s a lesson for next time. The hardest thing about these lessons is remembering them when out shooting and not repeating the same mistakes over and over.
@Kris_Smith - thank you too for your comments and feedback, I appreciate it! Yeah, wood lilies are one of my favourite flowers that grow here in the mountains. My biggest pet-peeve is when people pick them though. I’ve heard that if you pick a wood lily it kills the entire plant and it won’t grow back the following year andI find that really sad.
I just now found this one and glad I did – and a good discussion. The flower is gorgeous – I’m not used to finding things this pretty in the wild. Good ideas that the vignette could be reduced a bit and the branch on the left could be blurred a bit. Good the power outage didn’t do more harm. They can fry a regular computer and hard drives. Laptops may be a bit more insulated? I always have an uninterruptable power supply on all computers, even my laptop when it’s plugged in.
Thanks for you comments @Diane_Miller, they are much appreciated!
We don’t have power outages here very often but this one lasted almost an hour. All of our electronics survived and it was just the edit that I lost. I had a little bit of time this morning so I re-edited the file and incorporated the feedback I received here. It’s definitely better but I have another image that I like better that I will post on Monday (hopefully).
I like the reworked version over the original. Saturation and highlights are now controlled and the lily looks good. The juniper on the LH side adds some balance to the scene…Jim
I think the reworked version is even better. The flower stands out even more strongly. Looking forward to the next image!
With power outages, the big problem isn’t the duration – it’s the first millisecond (going out or coming back on) when things can get fried. And brownouts are another serious issue. The frequency is just a matter of how much you like to gamble. I really don’t know a lot of people, and two of them have lost everything in power outages. But then they didn’t think they needed backups.
Oh yeah - the re-edit makes the most of what’s great about this photo and minimizes what isn’t. Magic!
And I totally get it about trying to remember stuff when you’re out in the field. I’m leaving for a waterfall shoot with a friend and want to try a few things and work in techniques and approaches that aren’t in my usual bag of tricks. I’ve taken to putting a note on my phone to remind me of things to try or types of photos to make. We’ll see how that goes today with a buddy along to distract me!
Diane, I’ve heard of power outages ruining electronics for some people but luckily I’ve never experienced any problems (knock on wood). My computer is plugged into a cheap surge suppressor but quite honestly I doubt it would help if push came to shove. You never know though, right?
Kris, I hope you enjoy your waterfall shoot today and I hear you about putting notes on your phone. I actually just made myself a 4"x6" paper card that will live in my camera bag in the slot where I keep my camera body that has a bunch of “questions to ask myself” to encourage me to think more about my compositions and to remind me of things I want to try or experiment with.
You never know, for sure. And I wouldn’t want to find out. A cheap surge suppressor would help in the simplest case, but there are so many possibilities that it won’t cover. Check out battery backups similar to this – they come in different sizes for different loads and run times. For many, an app lets them shut down an unattended computer before their battery runs down. APC is a good company with robust products.
The computer’s power supply maintains system voltage to the motherboard and peripheral devices. Battery backups will turn on especially during brownouts to keep AC voltage at a constant level. Brownouts occur especially during summer months when power grids become strained as air conditioners place an intense demand on power grids. I have a Cyber Power 1000va on my system and it works quite well. I use APC equipment at work and am not pleased with the one that I have right now. The entire system shuts off rather than allowing me to shut down the computer. One of the few APC lemons that I have encountered. It happens now and then and most of the time APC battery backups work fine right out of the box…Jim
