The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
I went down to the beach before sunrise. It was a a soft and subtle light on a cloudy morning. A herring gull dropped this living quahog (hard-shell clam) in an attempt to break it open, but the sand didn’t do the job. I loved the soft light and the subtle colors of the morning as they reflected on the shell. My hope was to convey both the softness of the morning and the vulnerability of that quahog having been taken from its habitat and dropped to die. The tide was coming in–perhaps it was returned to the sea to continue its life.
Feedback Requested
I never know if an image I like is compelling or interesting to anyone else, and you have taught me that perhaps that doesn’t matter. Still, I am interested in knowing how this could be improved in lighting, composition, or editing. I did soften it a bit.
That poor herring gull is bummed about the intact clam. The comp is nice and you may want to slightly reduce the amount of Cyan which gives a greenish hue to the sand. There’s a small amount of graininess (noise) to the image which can be reduced if so desired. Well done…Jim
Elizabeth, I like the subtle cyan tones that are in the clam, the sand and showing well in the brighter water. For me, there’s a quiet, melancholy feeling in the isolated clam and the cool blue tones. I think this is well composed. How you choose to handle the colors depends on the feeling that your trying to invoke. After taking it’s photo, I probably would have thrown it back into the water…
Hello Elizabeth, I find the image to be very compelling. I like how the slope of the edge of the water mirrors the slope of the quahog. The way you caught the colors in the wet sand and quahog adds a lot to the image. My eye comes in along the edge of the water which leads me to the quahog. My eye than goes to the sand which as I indicated, I find to be worth exploring. I do indeed linger on the Quahog.
For me the image reminds me of resilience as the Quahog is out of it’s element but still surviving, perhaps till the tide carries it back out.
A potential way to improve the image is to use a linear gradient on the blurry portion, subtract the subject and soften that area by reducing the contrast and texture. Hope you don’t mind but I took the liberty to tweak the image. Once I softened that area, I brought the whites up of the overall image .
Love this! Love the simplicity and actually the story being told. And really, I think there’s a story, or a mystery without your backstory. I mean, whole clams like this don’t exist really unless you dig them up, right? So one wonders how this got here. But more importantly you did an outstanding job framing this. It’s clearly not just an image of a clam; it’s the environment, the context that you’ve included and created. Beautifully seen and captured.
When I first saw this, my first thought was how fitting this image may be for the discussion on “Ma”. You should check it out.
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My hope was to convey both the softness of the morning and the vulnerability of that quahog having been taken from its habitat and dropped to die. The tide was coming in–perhaps it was returned to the sea to continue its life.
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I think you achieved your purpose, Elizabeth. It’s a very subtle, humble, and symbolic image, all of which is to say, well done! I like the idea of brightening a bit, but I think too the darkness indicates its vulnerability.
Thanks, Jim. Yes, I’ve inadvertently been adding graininess to my images in LR and it’s part of my learning curve. I’ll be more careful with this. The greenish hue was what I saw–this was prior to sunrise so the light was unusual.
Thanks, Marylynne. I do tend to favor darkening rather than lightening images, and it was before sunrise so it was kind of dark, but I hear the advice. Thanks.
To me it is a very compelling image. The shell clamp is interesting in it self, and made beautiful by the sunrise light.
One idea could be to crop the image to emphasizr even more of the very nice shell clamp (see example crop). Even if cropped there is enough left of the beach and the water with its colors to still tell your story.
A much belated thanks for this, Mark. I didn’t honestly do much with the colors–that is pretty much what the camera saw that early morning. And the tide was coming in…
Thank you, Lon. I’m glad to be introduced to the concept of Ma, which resonates deeply with me. I just watched a youtube video on it and learned more. I am also glad to be introduced to your wonderful work.
Thank you, Huw. Yes, as I said to someone else, I have just learned about “Ma,” and it gives a name and greater understanding (for me) of a concept that I do value, intuitively.
