Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
I was shooting the sunset and noticed the flowers at my feet. I had to capture them.
Does the focus between the foreground and background work? Is this too closely cropped? Is the image boring?
28mm
Welcome aboard, Mark. I think you’ll enjoy this community. It’s a great place to learn and develop your skills and eye as a photographer. I certainly understand the urge to photograph these flowers, but I think your mind was probably on sunsets and it’s a whole different ballgame than flowers. While I really like the splash of color from the flowers on the bush, they tend to get out competed by the arc of golden light going across the ridge and down to the cactus to the right of the shrub. The lovely golden arcs of the grass also tend to compete with the bush and its flowers. In general, I think you have some really lovely elements in the image, but rather than cooperating with one another, they’re competing for the viewer’s attention.
Welcome again. I encourage you to keep on posting and to read as many critiques on your and other folks images as you possibly can find time for. And critique other folks images. It’s difficult at first, but by seeing how others do it, you can pick it up. It’s largely trying to define in your own mind what it is you like about a particular image and what seems to be slightly off. I know I learned a lot more trying to think about images that way than any formal workshop I’ve taken.
Mark: Welcome to NPN and thanks for a good first post. I agree with @Dennis_Plank regarding the competing elements, especially when one is really bright compared to the other. Our eyes tend to go to the brightest point in an image and here it’s the featureless sky. I think the light on the ridge in the ULC is wonderful but there is so little of it that it ends up being an eye magnet and takes away from the main subject. by cropping the sky completely you get a whole other image that actually works pretty well. I like your limited DOF and the colors in the scene.
One other administrative point, site guidelines recommend images sized to 2000 pixels on the long side. When you post larger dimensions the site often compresses them and the results aren’t great. I resized this and think it enhanced the sharpness of some of the fine details. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to more of your work.>=))>
Hi Mark,
Welcome! I came here to do what Bill just did. I like the image without the sky! That is some sweet light.
ML
