The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Another hot day . Walk the lake looking for good dragonfly spots. Sit down (good hat on) and shoot photos until I get too hot or my camera heats up too much . Just enjoying photographing and trying to improve.
Specific Feedback
What I like: the orange vs blue, the pointy pose, decent light.
What do you think of: the depth (light/dark) mainly in the foreground, bocah (basically no background), overall sharpness, general impression of image.
All feedback welcome.
Technical Details
Fuji XT4 : 600mm (900mm full frame), 1/1000 s , f11, ISO 1000
2x lens extension on a 70-300mmlens
Edits: Lightroom + denoise, Topaz Sharpen
James, did the same today (got through a lot of drinking water!). I saw a few dragonflies like this in what I learnt is called “the obelisk posture” (!). One of the main functions is to minimize exposure to direct sunlight. Anyway, I like the angle, with the abdomen in line with the perch, and I love the colours. You did very well with the focus on key parts. My only suggestion: crop out perhaps 10-15% of the right side, as then the background would be even smoother - plus the df would not be so central (though central can often look good too).
James, be careful in this heat. Sounds like you are doing that with water and a nice hat. I know I can get so engrossed in my photography that I don’t pay attention to what is going on in my body, so for me I would really have to set a time limit or something.
I like this image of the DF. I agree with @Mike_Friel on maybe a crop, but my thought is, to make the image compositionally more appealing might be to try a slight clockwise rotation first and then crop as it visually looks good, where maybe the diagonal line of perch and DF are going towards the corners, if that makes sense. May not work, but just a thought since the BG has nothing in it that indicates vertical orientation. Nice details where needed on the DF. Great job!
Lovely!! An interesting pose and perch, excellent sharpness and detail and a very pleasing BG. I love the light on the wings. I would agree with @Mike_Friel about a crop from the right to decenter the DF but I’d hate losing the shadow detail on the right, which i really like. I wondered about a content-aware move of the subject, but a quick try left smudges and artifacts. Maybe a more careful selection would do it. So I just copied the left 1/3 or so to a new layer and used a very soft brush, at both full and reduced opacity, to hide it where it covered the DF. Then I lightened the dark area in the UL just a little.
Thanks Shirley, yes one method I have heard is to turn the photo upside down and crop. So that you see the balance from a different perspective. Additionally you can make the photo B & W to remove any distraction from color.
Thanks Diane, that’s something I have not tried before.! So much to learn in Photoshop!
I was blind to the crop on this one. I felt something wasn’t quite right though. Now I see it!
Hi James, I like the composition with a pleasing perch leading to the dragonfly. Nice sharpness throughout. Agree on cropping from the right some. I have shot the obelisking pose quite a bit in the past and like this take on it - well done. I have also shot obelisking dragonflies head on but had to use fill flash as they always face away from the sun to cool. Nice frame.
Go with a vertical format with this type of shot. BG is nice, but removing the negative space on the RH side will strengthen the comp. Diane’s crop looks good, but feel free to try a vertical format for the image. Exposure is spot on…Jim
