The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
An image from my backyard, literally. Early spring as the dogwoods blossom
Specific Feedback
I was experimenting with shallow depth of field, but not so shallow that the background was blurred away. I hoped to have the background echo the foreground.
Technical Details
Sony A7riv with a Sigma 105 f/2.8 macro lens at f/2.8. 1/400 sec at iso 100.
Basic processing in Lightroom for exposure, contrast and saturation. A little bit of cloning out distracting details.
I really like the depth of field you chose and the idea of the echo, Will. The only suggestions I have is that I think it would have worked better if you moved just a touch to the left so the subject blossom and echo didn’t overlap (see circled area in attached image). I don’t know what’s causing the top of that same blossom to have what look like blown highlights, but I do think getting rid of them would make the image even better. Those nits aside, I really like this.
Will, what a lovely and dreamy photo! The DOF is great in accentuating the softness of the scene. You captured the echo effect you wanted very nicely. I do agree with @Dennis_Plank’s assessment, too. Spacing between the dogwoods in focus and the echo would really make this image even better. Since the flower is in your backyard, you might be able and feel like experimenting some more. As Dennis proposed, moving a little to the left and a little higher would add more space between the dogwood and the branches as well. You might be able to achieve similar spacing as in the two branches in the BG. I think that would also, hopefully, eliminate the strong highlights in the BG. This is a very beautiful and delicate image.
You imagined a sensitive way to depict the repeating curved limbs of dogwood. The DOF in this was very effective in conveying the echo of the BG branches. It is an image that can only be captured in the short time when the dogwood has few, small leaves. Keep at it next year.
I found myself wanting to add some of the bottom right colors as an overlay over the white area in upper left. Then it seemed like there was too much color and not enough dogwood. I tinkered with a content aware crop/rotate and had this result …
@Dennis_Plank@Dick_Knudson@Egídio Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Come next April, I can try again and make use of your compositional suggestions. Also, I’ll use a polarizer next time. The bright highlight on the blossom is a specular reflection. There was some bright light illuminating the scene from the left. I can clone some of that out now, but a polarizer would have been a better choice.
@Dick_Knudson I mostly like your edit of the background, except that it reduces the visibility of the leaves on the right hand side because their color is similar to the background. But I think it works well on the upper left.
