The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.
Self Critique
I don’t think I nailed the focus on this one, maybe I should have stopped down a little but it would have meant raising the already high iso. I also wanted to really isolate the subject for that the micro four thirds sensor needs a fairly open aperture.
Creative direction
Pareidolia is one of the quiet gifts of macro work. The brain, ever helpful, insists on finding faces wherever it can: in clouds, in tree bark, in burnt toast, and apparently in the desiccated remains of last season’s blossoms. I did not arrange this. Nature simply offered me a tiny shrunken head and asked, very politely, whether I had a camera handy.
What I love about this kind of image is that it requires almost no embellishment. The little fruit does all the acting. My only job was to isolate it against the soft green wash of the background so that the face could speak without distraction. The shallow depth of field keeps the attention exactly where the pareidolia lives, on those two startled eyes and that mouthful of dried stamens that looks suspiciously like a yelp caught mid flight.
There is something delightful about how willing we are to project personality onto a few millimeters of botanical debris. A dried rose hip becomes a character. A seed pod becomes a tiny ghost. The garden, it turns out, is full of small theatrical performers, and most of them are working without an audience.
Specific Feedback
Is it working for you despite the technical flaws ?
How do you emotionally respond to this image ?
Technical Details
OM-1 - Olympus 60mm macro
f2.8 - 1/30s - iso 2500
Description
There is a small dried fruit hanging from a branch in a path not far from home, and one afternoon it decided to look back at me. Two perfectly placed sockets, a tangle of withered filaments dangling like a startled little beard, and an expression somewhere between mild horror and existential resignation. I am fairly certain I interrupted it mid scream.
This is a pretty fun and slightly strange image, but you’re right that we always seem to find faces whenever we can. Ah, humans. With this one I could see allowing more room at the top, either in the field or by adding canvas in Photoshop, and also cropping some off the bottom. I don’t get the idea that the subject will ‘move into’ that space so it feels unnecessary. The colors are certainly interesting with the slight pinkish cast. It reminds me a lot of the seed pods Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) makes after it is pollinated. One thing that can help with getting more DOF and controlling ISO is using a flash with a diffuser. I have shot 4/3 and M4/3 for over almost 2 decades and understand your predicament, adding external light is a good way to get the most out of the format where the natural wider DOF is an advantage in macro.
Thank you Kris for the kind words and the gentle push in the right direction. I will experiment with a bit more headroom above our floating little ghoul and see whether he appreciates having a touch more air above that worried brow.
On the lighting front, I am currently in the early and somewhat undignified stages of figuring out a flash and diffuser combination. New territory for me, and I would love to pretend that every decent frame is the result of careful calculation, but in all honesty luck is doing most of the work right now. I fiddle with settings, I point things in roughly the correct direction, and once in a while the photography gods take mercy on me and hand back something I can actually keep. The rest of the time my subjects either come out scorched into pure white anonymity or sunk in shadows so deep they could moonlight in a detective film.
Still, those occasional small victories are enough to keep me motivated, and they almost convince me that lugging yet another bulky accessory through the undergrowth is a perfectly reasonable life choice.
Flash diffuser combos are nearly infinite- check any decent macro you tube channel and you’re bound to find some opinion pieces. It took me a lot of bad shots to get any proficiency with a flash combo, but with modern flashes it’s much easier. The invention of TTL was a huge step forward in figuring flash strength and effect on the scene. I occasionally use 2nd curtain flash off camera when doing small microscapes and such. It allows for some of the ambient light to be noticeable and I like the effect.
It’s a very interesting shot, Sebastien. I agree with Kristen that it could use more room at the top and less at the bottom but it’s intriguing as is..
What a wonderful shrunken head!! It’s so unusual that the unusual framing doesn’t detract, and probably adds, but a more conventional framing would probably be the same – neither better nor worse – just different! It’s the subject that rules in this case!
What a great shot. Edvard Munch would definitely approve! I agree maybe a little more room at the top and less at the bottom might work. Brought a smile to my face
Thank you so much, that really made my day. Munch’s approval would indeed be the highest possible honor, though I suspect he might also gently suggest the little fellow needs a slightly more dramatic sky to scream into. Point taken on the breathing room: a touch more above and a trim from below seems to be the unanimous verdict, and I will happily oblige.
Glad it brought a smile. That is honestly the best review a tiny haunted rose hip could hope for.
Thank you so much, shrunken head is exactly the right term and I am officially adding it to my permanent vocabulary. The little fellow has been hanging in the garden for who knows how long, quietly perfecting that traumatized expression, and it seems only fair that he finally gets the dignified title he deserves.
You make a lovely point too: when a subject has this much personality, it really does run the show. I just held the camera. He did all the acting, and frankly he did not even ask for a fee. Thanks again for the kind words and the smile.
Sebastien: I grew up in photography learning and loving shallow DOF single capture so this has a special appeal to me, although as a practicing optometrist I’m concerned about his disparate pupils and ocular misalignment . I do agree with the others regarding the placement in the frame but that’s such an easy fix. Good eye to spot this and even better that you carried off an endearing portrait. >=))>
Thank you so much @Bill_Fach, your concern for the little fellow’s ocular health made me laugh out loud. I should clarify that any pupillary irregularity is entirely the fault of the rose hip and not the photographer, though I will gladly schedule him for a follow up consultation if you have any morning slots. I suspect his disparate gaze is less a medical condition and more the lingering aftermath of whatever traumatic event left him with that expression in the first place. We may never know what he saw.
I am right there with you on the shallow depth of field passion. There is something about the way it holds a single sliver of the world in tender clarity while letting everything else dissolve into atmosphere that feels almost like a confession the image is whispering. It always brings to mind that wonderful Verlaine stanza:
Il faut aussi que tu n’ailles point
Choisir tes mots sans quelque méprise,
Rien de plus cher que la chanson grise
Où l’Indécis au Précis se joint.
Nothing is more precious than the gray song where the Uncertain meets the Precise.
He could not have known he was writing the perfect ars poetica for shallow depth of field, but there it is. The thin sharp plane is the Précis, the soft surrounding world is the Indécis, and the magic happens exactly where they meet. Without one the image is a botanical record. Without the other it is a smudge. Together they sing.
Glad the little ghoul earned his portrait keep, and thank you again for the kind words. I will pass along the eye exam recommendation, though I suspect he will refuse to remove his sunglasses.
. I do agree with the others regarding the placement in the frame but that’s such an easy fix. Good eye to spot this and even better that you carried off an endearing portrait. >=))>