Broken but Unbowed + Repost/combo

Image Critiques Macro/Close-up Critiques
1

Broken-2025-01-05-17-31-07-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-25.jpg
Broken-2025-01-05-17-31-07-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-25.jpg1337×2000 2.99 MB

Broken-2025-01-05-17-34-20-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-25.jpg
Broken-2025-01-05-17-34-20-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-25.jpg2000×1330 2.95 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Hurricane Beryl was fairly rough on a few of our trees and this is some of the damage to our Rising Sun Redbud, one of our favorite trees. This was a main branch so we lost about 30% of the tree but the rest seemed to do well through the rest of the summer. Spring will tell the tale. I’ve walked past it all year on the way to scout the garden but stopped and looked a bit more carefully last week and decided it might make an interesting subject. I shot it initially at f22 thinking a single capture would work but either the DOF wasn’t sufficient or I had a bad plane of focus. I went back this evening and did a stack and was more pleased.

Specific Feedback

Any preference for one orientation over the other? Compelling subject or meh?

Technical Details

Sony A7r3
Sony FE 70-200 f2.8 GM-II @ 200mm
ISO 400, 1/3 sec @ f11, 15 shot stacks in Helicon Focus

Tried to address Dennis wish for a wider view. I like to fill the frame with most subjects so to include the best features of both images I did have to include some BG in the ULC and LLC. I selected those areas and desaturated them (they were relatively bright green).

Broken-Combo2025-01-07-14-24-56-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-25
Broken-Combo2025-01-07-14-24-56-(B,R8,S4)A7r3-251334×2000 2.91 MB

Critique Template

Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.

  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
  • Emotional Impact and Mood:
  • Composition:
  • Balance and Visual Weight:
  • Depth and Dimension:
  • Color:
  • Lighting:
  • Processing:
  • Technical:
3

Bill, I’m so glad you took the time to stop by and look at this scene. So much to look at with the shapes, lines, texture in it. I thought it was a stump thought, not a limb broken off. I like both shots very much, but the horizonal one has that bright portion right at the right edge that pulls my eye out of the frame, so I think the vertical is probably the best. Both are good and I would be proud to call either one mine.

4

Tough call on these, Bill. There are some things I like about one and some on the other. I guess what I’d really like is the width of the horizontal and the height of the vertical (or even a bit more). There is a lot of cool geometry in that broken off area and it gets kind of chopped off in the vertical presentation.

From this image, it looks as if this limb was close to going when the hurricane hit.

A very good eye to see this.

5

Bill, both views look very good. They provide very different feelings. The horizontal emphasizes the broken wood and it’s details very well. I do prefer the vertical at least partly because it took me a bit of looking to realize what the scale was and to recognize that it was wood. (My first thought was a big rock wall with interesting erosion forms… :thinking:) The angled “view” adds some visual dynamics.

6

I really like that new version, Bill. I think you achieved the best of both worlds and the idea of desaturating the background worked extremely well in this case.