Here are two macro photos of the same piece of driftwood. Taken last October during Out Of Oregon. The images have evoke very different emotions, I would think!
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
This colorful piece of driftwood caught my eye. It was about 3 feet long, this is a small section of it. I didn’t notice the face until later (it is off the bottom in the first photo). When I started to crop to pull out the face, the photo looked very different!
Technical Details
Canon EOS R, 100mm macro, f/16, 1/60 s, ISO 100. The first image is a 3 image focus stack.
The first image is cropped at 16:9 and I use it as a screen background.
Let me be the first to welcome you to NPN! Fabulous first post(s)!
What a beautiful piece of driftwood you’ve found - and taken great advantage by framing these beauties!
The first one, I really like the luminosity, color/sat and contrast. Beautifully processed. If I had a suggestion it might be to crop in from the right to remove the darker patch. I think it cuts in to the face you were describing if you were to crop. But at least to my eye, I didn’t notice the face right away. Personal opinion of course, but I think the main interest in the first image is the left 2/3. What comes to my mind is an ariel view - a winter river or brown run-off between lands and islands. Maybe even some topo relief map or something. Very, very cool.
The second image - so expressive! I most certainly see some sort of figure - like a light colored beaver holding up a big peanut or potatoe - the imagination is is engaged with this one.
My feedback on this image is that I would like to see the processing match the luminosity and contrast of the first. This one seems a little flat (of course that is only relative because of the two images posted together. I might not have commented without having seen the first.)
Excellent first post! We look forward to more images and also encourage you to jump right in and begin commenting on other members. We won’t bite!
Hi George, welcome to NPN! It’s great seeing you share these two awesome images in the Abstract category. I love the patterns in both images. The driftwood has so much character. In the first image, it may be interesting to see it rotated clockwise 90 degrees with a bit cropped off the bottom. I find the patterns on the left side the most interesting section of the image.
Lon had a great suggestion on the second image regarding the overall exposure and luminosity. The character or face in the image is a real treat and I can see why you were focused on photographing it. Nice work on both images! Hope to see more of your work here soon.
Welcome, George! These are great finds – good eye! I love the face – with a cat’s body attached. (Cats have special powers, you know…) It could be interesting with a bit more saturation, as you have in the first one. I love them both!
Hi George and welcome to NPN, home of a bunch of really talented photographers, very experienced post processing gurus and one old guy with a vivid (and odd) imagination
I really like the textures and the color contrast between beige and gray.
The top image reminds me of a hand carved “Wooden Map”, which is a technique that dates back hundreds of years, they still make them today but they are now laser cut.
The light and dark areas were and still are stained to indicate elevations in the landscape like a modern color topographical map.
Very cool piece of driftwood and an equally cool image of it!
The second one answers an age old question (OK, maybe a minutes old question), what would it look like if a Cartoon French Artist Character with a Beret Style Hat and a Gray Cat look like if they had been “Smashed” together? Well…This is “It” for me, thankfully I need not lose anymore sleep wondering about it.
OK, All kidding aside, both of these are really great!
BTW, I’m not among the really good Abstract Artists here, I’m not any good at it (I know my limitations) but I do enjoy viewing work by others (including yours)
