Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Is it interesting? Does it prompt a mood? All comments are welcome but I’m not looking for technical advice.
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
This is another close-up of part of an agave, but it’s really an arrangement of shapes and tones.
Technical Details
ISO 100, 100mm, f/2.8, 0.3 seconds.
Wonderful!! I guessed the subject here but it didn’t diminish appreciation. Wonderful arrangement of tonalities. This could pass for an f/1 lens – maybe a super-macro.
Thanks, Diane. I took a lot of shots of the same subject with the same gear. It was fun.
Hi Don,
This definitely grabs my attention. It’s got that dreamy quality that makes one wonder what the subject is, but I often find myself more interested in what else it could be. That’s what I love about abstracts. For me, that single point of focus makes the image. I love the black and white approach and the subtle tonal shift from left to right.
The only suggestion I have would be to clone out the two bits of dust (real world or sensor?) on that lower right third.
Nicely done.
ML
Marylynne, thanks. I tried to be careful about dust but the absence of detail in shots like this makes every little bit of it show up!
Don,
Wow, this is really cool - and special. Although I have an expectation what I’m assuming it is… my first impression wouldn’t be that. My thought is in the realm of the “Twilight Zone.” There is something other worldly about this. Like a light eminating from some alien forcefield, or something… I don’t know how to put in words - I’m not that creative.
Another interpretation - a light or statue, a beacon shining through a dense fog providing a sense of hope.
Technically, the dust was mentioned - no biggie at all here. Oh, love the tonality. The only nit/observation is that the darker shadow area on the left seems a little pixelated. If you could smooth that out, this would be even more special!
Thank you, Lon. I was amazed when this showed up in the viewfinder.
