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Image Description
Hi there!
I took this image three days ago in the Dolomites (afternoon) and I was pretty lucky about the conditions. After driving around for two days I finally found a field with some great wild flowers. But I have some technical issues with the image. Thanks for taking the time!
Technical Details
1/160 sec
f16
ISO 200
Specific Feedback
I have technical questions:
After the first edit I somehow can’t get rid of the feeling that colorwise something is not quite right, or at least could be done better. Do you have any idea?
The bigger problem: The flowers in the foreground are not sharp. I took the image with my 9mm 7artisans lens, which I quite like, but it’s a manual lens, so I don’t get feedback when not focused. Also, at f16 it seems that one has to be careful of the borders. I already ran it through Topaz, but I can’t get it much sharper. Do you think this one is lost?
Critique Template
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This is just my personal opinion. My initial reaction was I like the composition, the subject matter, the dramatic sky, but my enjoyment is tempered by my feeling that when using the near/far compositional technique, you should have maximum DOF from front to back. Maybe you were trying to give the sense of a small pre storm wind imparting a sense of movement to the flowers, but in that case I feel they all should be blurry, not just the ones closest to the camera. As it is I feel it just looks OOF. Now if you were down low shooting through OOF FG flowers like a wall of color, I think that would work. But as it is, it just looks like a mistake. But what do I know. Rules are meant to be broken.
Edit: After reading your thoughts I see you were also concerned about the OOF FG. I think the FG is beyond Topaz’s ability to sharpen. I am not a color expert but it looks fine to my eye. To answer your question: Unless you can find a suitable crop to get rid of the OOF flowers, then yes I feel it is lost.
My initial thought was i love it - the sky and the mountain is just so dramatic. I think having all the foreground flowers in focus would improve it, but it is just stunning.
Markus,
I really want to like this, but I can’t get past all those OOF flowers in the FG. You certainly had some wonderful conditions and everything else looks great. I cropped off some of the flowers; I didn’t want to go to far: and came up with this. There as still some OOF ones there, but this works better IMO. What do you think?
@Ed_Lowe, thank you so much! This looks like a good idea to me. think I will try cutting out the flower in the LRC which is cut in half. Then I will reconsider publishing it;-)
A great scene, and definitely NOT a lost cause!
Ed’s suggested crop works well. A few OOF flowers are not a distraction.
My eye is draw to the blown area atthe top of the peak, si I’d bring that down a touch.
Fine image all in all!
Markus, I like the composition but I think you need to improve on the lens distortion in the mid ground hut and trees. The barrel affect works for this image on borders but not so much elsewhere.
I found another bracketing shot with sharper flowers and used it for the foreground. It’s still not tack sharp, but I guess it’s a bit better. Also, I removed the hut as it really was tilted and uninhabitable, haha.
Still, not one for the portfolio, but maybe for IG. Thanks again to all of you!
