The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This beautiful sunflower has self-sown in one of my pots on the terrace and looks so pretty with the sunlight streaming through. I just had to capture the moment as a reminder of summer, now that we are rapidly heading towards winter.
Specific Feedback
What could I have done in the editing to make it better?
Technical Details
The picture was taken using a tripod and the settings are
100 mm, F 6.3, 1/640 sec, RF 100 mm macro
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:
Welcome to NPN. I think you’ll enjoy it. I really like this first post of yours. The light through the petals and sepals of the sunflower is wonderful, Mie. As for editing, the mass of bokeh balls in the upper right are bright enough that they tend to pull my eye away from the flower. A linear gradient coming in from the upper left corner toward the center might work to tame them. I don’t think I’d remove them. I do find the two out of focus foreground leaves, particularly the one in the upper left a bit distracting. If you haven’t experimented with it yet, this subject might have been a great opportunity for a little focus stacking. I don’t think you could have gotten enough depth of field even stopping down all the way, but going to say f/11 and stacking three or four images would probably have worked quite well. You didn’t mention your camera, but most of the last couple of generations have incorporated an automatic process, though on a tripod the old manual method isn’t all that difficult. Just go to manual focus, turn on focus peaking so you can see what’s in focus, make sure your first frame has the nearest element in focus and take shots with overlapping focus areas until you get tho the farthest element that you might want in focus in the final image.
Welcome again. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot more of your work and reading your comments on other’s efforts.
Thank you very much Dennis for your very thorough criticism, which I will definitely try
My camera is a EOS R5. I haven’t yet tried the automatic focus-stacking in camera, only the older way
Hello, Mie. I use Sony, but the auto function in all of them is similar. Since they don’t yet have you set both ends of the stack and the step size isn’t expressed in any real units, it takes some getting used to, but once you’ve figured it out it’s pretty cool. Be very generous with the number of steps. It doesn’t hurt to have frames past the subject as they’re easy to delete upon review.
Hi and welcome to NPN - what a joyful first post you’ve shared. I love the colors and the light is fantastic. The strong diagonal and square aspect ratio work well to tie the image together and create some tension. Dennis’s gradient suggestion for the upper right corner is a good one, but I wouldn’t drag it into the flower because of that wee bit of spider silk - nice touch!
Oh and I think we’re talking two different things here - in camera focus stacking where the final image is done before you get it to the computer, and in camera focus bracketing which is an automated way of changing the focus point in each frame for stacking in the computer with a dedicated app like Zerene or Helicon. Here is a link to a discussion we had about it - Focus Stacking if you’d like to dive a little deeper.
Nice to have you on board. Denmark is a place I’d like to get to someday (the closest I’ve gotten is Norway) and I look forward to seeing your photos!
Welcome to NPN! Excellent first post. I really like sunflowers and this is a nice perspective, especially with the backlighting through the petals. I have the same camera and I am well pleased with it. I’m sure you will enjoy both the R5 and NPN. Nice community of photographers.
Mie: Welcome to NPN in general and to Flora in particular. Thanks for a fine first post. The comp and the backlighting are especially nice. Like the others I find the bright bokeh a bit of an eye magnet. I did use a linear gradient and then painted in just a hint of color so the spots wouldn’t just be a darker shade of gray. You’ve set a high standard for yourself and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work and your comments on others’ posts. >=))>
