The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Wandering along the beach, I spotted this random decayed leaf with pea shaped berries attached that had washed up onto the foreshore. It was partially covered by sand but the green peas caught my attention. At first I thought someone had dropped some food but after some help from Siri, I discovered that the leaf comes from a plant called the beach pea.
Apparently beach peas can be viable for up to 5 years in salty water. and are edible.
Specific Feedback
I liked the random positioning of the leaf and peas but wondered if the whole image needs more colour, (especially the sand)? The shot was taken mid morning . The tide was coming in so I couldn’t wait for softer light.
Technical Details
f/8; 1/320 sec, focal length 70 mm
Nikon z7 with a 24-70mm lens
That is quite the find, Diny. I have never seen anything like that while walking the beach. It is so nice that we can just look up and learn about things like this. We are living in a wonderful time, in that respect. I noticed that you posted this in 878 pixels on the long side, hence it doesn’t enlarge as big as it could if it were at the recommended 2000 on the long side. From what I can see it looks sharp. F8 should be a good f-stop since you didn’t have to worry so much about DOF. I like the color combo of the green with the varying shades of brown with the leaf and the sand. I think for me the composition works well, but I would even try a square, if it were mine, just to see how that looks. Nicely done, Diny!
Welcome to NPN, Diny. This is a really nice image and I don’t think you need to do anything to the sand. Sand is what it is and jazzing it up doesn’t look natural. I didn’t realize the leaf was from the same plant when I looked at it. Also thanks for the information on beach peas. It’s very interesting.
Fascinating!! I wouldn’t try to bring up the sand – let it be subdued against the leaf and peas. (A new plant for me, too.) I think a square crop would be wonderful here, and maybe bring up a tiny bit more detail on the leaf. The Shadows slider in raw conversion might be worth a try.
This such a fun image Diny, and interesting composition. I really like the simple colors and shapes. It kind of makes this a bit minimalistic and really works.
How interesting! Not knowing about beach peas, this definitely looks like someone placed “regular” peas on a leaf - rather surreal.
I like your framing, with the angle of the leaf. You could go for an alternate crop, but this one works fine, IMO.
As far as color, it feels a bit flat. I think it’s because the color temperature is on the warm side. If it was cooled, there would be more color separation, especially in the sand.
I cooled it a bit and brightened up the peas/leaf - see what you think:
You can use the histogram to get better color separation. The most color separation is shown when the three parts (RGB) overlap the most (learned that from David Kingham). Here’s your original histogram.
Here’s the one after I cooled it. I didn’t take it all the way to fullly overlapping RGB curves because that looked too cool. You can see how the peaks are closer together, though.
Hi Bonnie,
I tried a square crop, which looked fine but I did like the extra space around the leaf.
I also lightened the leaf ( curves and masking) and brightened the peas as suggested by others in this feed.
I do like your suggestion re cooling the image.
Thank you for explaining how the colour separation in the histogram works, will keep that in mind with future edits.
Diny: I’m late to the party but wanted to add my welcome and kudos. I love beach combing and enjoy your find. The adjusted versions are a nice improvement on an already fine image. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to more. >=))>
