Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
?
?
?
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Welcome to NPN and the Macro forum, Jan. This is a nice set of images, but it’s a bit difficult to provide constructive criticisms without some information on what it was you were photographing, what you were trying to convey about it, and what kind of equipment and settings you used to photograph it. It’s also helpful for specific feedback if we know what software you’re using for processing your images.
The best way to get an idea of what you might want to include in your post is to read a bunch of other posts and the critiques of them. I’ve also found that one of the best ways to learn and improve it to provide critiques of other people’s images. It can be difficult when you’re first starting out but the Art of Image Critique article and the Critique Template are very helpful in that regard.
That said, I’ll try to make a start with your first image. There’s some really nice detail in this and I like the view of the sporangia (I think that’s the word). I do find it difficult to identify the intended subject in the image unless it’s the overall scene you were trying to capture. The little lichen that’s front and center looks like it could be the subject, but if so, I would have expected you to get in closer or crop more tightly to help emphasize it. I also find the out of focus plant in the lower right corner pulls my eye as does the very bright out of focus twig or needle in the upper right. I think if you cropped in from the right far enough to eliminate those two distractions and from the bottom far enough to eliminate the dark, rather featureless area down there, you’d have a more coherent composition.
Again, welcome to the group. I think you’ll enjoy the journey here and don’t hesitate to ask questions if we say something you don’t understand. I remember how baffled I was by some of the terminology when I first joined.
Thank you much for your comments, Dennis. And for your critique.
I am not sure this place is for me since I rarely take portraits of mosses. My purpose is usually scientific and taking a survey. These are almost all Polytrichum Those are not sporangia but rather sporophytes with capsules. In the case of Polytrichum an interesting thing is that it’s estimated the spores are released 15 months apart. So I am trying to document that as well as get surveys of quantitative density. These photos don’t document that specifically but with time and analysis I hope to get some numbers. (General techniques are in the Matthiopoulos book **How to Be a Quantitative Ecologist **[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119991595].)
Have a great day and weekend.
– Jan Galkowski.
Thanks, Jan. It does get hard to combine artistry with documentary shots, but there’s always room to do both. Mosses can make very artistic subjects as well.
Jan: Not much to add to what Dennis said but I will comment that the second extreme close up image is very cool and makes for a fine abstract. There’s a lot of “what is this?” in that shot. Welcome to NPN. I’m looking forward to more of your work. >=))>
Thanks much, Bill. Looking forward to contributing more.
– Jan
Jan welcome aboard and I hope you will continue to participate here. I often call myself a photographer of very small things and mosses, bryophytes and fungi are my weaknesses. Sporophytes in all conditions are an especial favorite, too! You can’t come into the woods with me unless you like the same things. It’s crazy. Your scientific approach to this kind of photography is so in my wheelhouse, but I lack training so just content myself with lots of guidebooks and an amateur’s curiosity.
That said, it can be a little tough to balance documentation images and artistic ones. One of the most valuable pieces of advice I have heard about bird photography applies here, too. Go ahead and take your “I saw it” shot (meaning, a documentary shot of the species), but then think like a photographer and approach your subject that way. With birds it means waiting for them to come to a spot with a great background and give you a good pose. If the bird goes behind a branch or turns away, stop shooting. You can apply this principle to little scenes like this by getting to the heart of the image by elimination and better camera positioning and settings. Microscapes work exactly like landscapes (on a smaller scale of course), but composition, framing, depth-of-field and leading lines are still important. Once I get over the excitement of finding a particular thing, I then set about deciding how to best portray it and my wonder at its “discovery”.
Phew! I hope that is helpful and I look forward to seeing more of your tiny worlds.
Thanks much for your comments. I will consider them carefully.
I don’t really know what “good looking” or “artistic” photo is. I can tell a striking one, like a couple of my Pohlia nutans photos. Will attach.
Because I don’t know “the artistic” I generally give up on it and try for taxonomy or science only. Maybe I’ll get lucky and snap some “artistic” ones.
Well I hope you don’t give up trying to find and express beauty in mosses. I didn’t mean to put you off or make you feel stressed about the photos you take. Pleasing yourself is the most important factor here - not us.
I think all humans have an intrinsic attraction to beauty and while most of it is universal in what appeals, expression of that is very different. Personally, I don’t think I’m a terribly creative person with deep insights into the human psyche, but I like what I like and try to create it both in photography and jewelry. Mostly it’s all for me, but I feel pretty great when others connect to my work as well. It’s like a secret language. Tiny worlds like these are similar - almost everyone ignores them and doesn’t understand how amazing things are at this scale.
If you want to stretch yourself a bit and pursue a less documentarian approach to these, I’m happy to help since I’ve done a ton of it myself and came from a similar place as you seem to be in. Not that I’m some kind of expert or visionary, but my images resonate for me and I know others have oohed and ahhed as well.
Here’s a link to some of my macros and close up scapes so you can get an idea -
You can also search for moss, sporophyte or microscape and see what comes up. Please don’t think this is pressure or I’m trying to toot my own horn. I just hope I didn’t come off as trying to shunt you into something you don’t want. Supporting each other in our work is what we’re here to do! 
