The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Before work the other day, I walked out in my lawn and saw many dogwood petals all over my lawn. I grabbed my camera and started walking around to see what might grab my attention. I saw a spider web in the ivy below my tree, and looked closer. Stuck there was a few petals and a bunch of other stuff. This one looked like a little bird or angel. So, I spent about 20 minutes playing around.
The first one is a 3 or 4 image multiple exposure where I changed the focus to get this soft, glowing effect. The second is 5 ME photographed a little closer, also changing points of focus. The next two are single images at different distances from the petal and different DOF.
Specific Feedback
As I was working this scene and doing the edit, I kept going around and around on which image I liked. So, I thought I would ask my NPN community their thoughts. Which ones seems to tell a story better? Are all the little pieces of dirt a distraction? Do some hurt by pulling you away from the focus of the image. And which DOF works better? Thanks.
Technical Details
Canon R
85mm macro
ISO: 400
Shutter speed and aperture changed for each image.
I like the 4th one best as it captures the chaos best and is sharpest. But if a dream state is what you are after, along with chaos, then number 1. 2 is too close and too out of focus for my liking, and 3 has a weird plane of focus where the upper part of the frame is in focus and the bottom is out of focus, and that is a bit unsettling to me. Although, even the really weird abstract nature of the debris which appears to be just floating in 4 still has a chaotic dream-like effect. Just my 2 cents.
Hello Patrick, interesting series of images! And I like the title very much. As for my favourites, I am with Youssef - oscillating between no. 1 and no. 4, depending on what you want to focus on… I unsìderstand the colors are relevant here, but… did you tried to turn them in b&w? could be even more dreamlike…
I like the semi-focus of #3, Patrick, though I’d crop out the right quarter or so of the frame (inside that very bright bit of debris. I like it because it maintains the dream-like feel while not looking like it’s just an out of focus image.
Patrick, I vote for #2 as having soft focus throughout fits the dreaminess, that the glow enhances. I also like #4, with the contrast between the dogwood petal and the leaves blow with both items reasonably sharp. It would look good cropped to 4x5, without the darkness on the right. The bits of dirt feel like they belong.
Thank you @Youssef_Ismail, @Antonello_Provenzale, @Dennis_Plank and @Mark_Seaver for your thoughts. I think I’ll play a little more with the crop just to see how talking away the black changes the feel I’m thinking I like. Antonello, you caused some trouble – of the good kind – for me today. I hadn’t thought of B/W, and I should have. I flipped a few, and whoa, it make a whole new photo. Then… I thought I would see if that little petal was still there. And it was, but a slightly different look. I call this one “Avenging Angel of Chaos”. I’m showing the B/W of it, but the color looks cool too. Now I’m thinking about a triptych of some sort. Hmm, we’ll see what comes of it. Thanks again.
Happy to have stimulated some troublesome rethinking
I like the b&w version a lot. As you said - both (color and b&w) are good but they convey a very different feeling. The b&w version (and I like your processing and contrast) is unsettling, with the vaguely ominous presence of the angel. How many images there are in a single image - or in our view of an image…
I really like this image and can see clearly the yellow “bird” . My favorite is the ME one as it allows what sorrounds the bird to seem alive and moving around it whilte the subject remains sharp. I think the dirt adds interest and in the ME it adds to feeling of live creatures moving and dancing around the bird. Really nice catch. Seems fun to play around with it.
