The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
We are often oscillating between two extremes: Focus Stacking, with its details that remind me of classic illustrations of nature wonders (think of Ernst Haeckel just to name one) - and fluffy, impressionist worlds associated with a very shallow depth-of-field. Here, I went back to my original passion for the second kind of vision and immersed myself and the camera at an… ant’s viewpoint. Anemonoides nemorosa, in the woods around my house, in a moist area on the side of a small stream, on the second day of Spring of this year (yesterday)…
Specific Feedback
any feedback is welcome
Technical Details
Fuji x-H2, Fuji 80/2.8 macro, ISO 200, f/4.5, 1/200 s, camera, lens and photographer lying in the mud…
This is gorgeous, Antonello. I don’t think a “realistic” view could covey the feeling of this at all, so I think you made the best choice to go for shallow depth of field and let the rest be so airy and full of spring. The composition with the out of focus flower arching across the frame really works well for my taste.
Antonello: I love shallow DOF work as well. We used to call it cramming to shoot through FG foliage with a wide open aperture to isolate one small feature. I’m not totally enamored with the crop with the flower “looking” right and so much room on the left. A tighter crop from the left and some from the top brings the main subject a bit more to the fore for me. The color palette and softness though are top notch. >=))>
Thanks @Dennis_Plank , @Shirley_Freeman , @Bill_Fach , @Susanna_Euston for your comments! I see the point of Bill’s crop and like it - on the other hand, I also like to have the whole out-of-focus flower - was going back and forth between the two options without deciding which one I like most
Hi Antonello,
I suspect you’ll debate which one you prefer for years to come. It’s a lovely, airy image, with a spring-like high key element. I do like the more singular focus of Bill’s crop. I might even trim a bit more off the left, thereby reducing the feel of a partial flower.
Here’s an effort at that. I’m not sure I like it better as now we lose some of that lovely, airy, gauzy background in the upper right.
@Marylynne_Diggs Thanks Marylynne! I like also your crop - which shows, once more, that pictures have more than one life and that the “best version” depends on who is looking at it and maybe also on the mood and feelings of the same viewer in different moments… This is one of the joys of photography, I think. Even without manipulating the image, what we choose, what we exclude can generate thousands of different visions…
