What changed: Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I removed the lighter stems in the background, cropped some, and softened the black section at the top. I like it much better.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
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’ve returned to this empty field right in town for the past couple years to shoot these milkweed (?) I like the shapes and textures of the leaves, pods , and seeds as the plants dry up.
Feedback Requested
I don’t think I like the black strip at the top, but not sure what to do about it.
Chris: It can be a challenge making a good image from a worn out subject but I think you did really well here. I like the comp and your DOF management especially. Removing some of the OOF BG twigs does make this a little better for me so here’s for your consideration. Well seen and nicely presented. >=))>
A very nice essay on shape and form. Love the depth of field you have chosen and the way the light and shadow renders the milkweed very 3D. The shape resembles a dancer to me.
I think this is more clearly transmitted to the viewer after Bill’s removals of the OOF bits.
The purple tint to the background is lovely in a mainly mono subject.
Chris, I too thoroughly enjoy spent milkweed pods. They do have some fine texture and take on some interesting shapes. This is a good look at this pod and leaf. Shooting from a bit higher up would remove the tree line near the top, but it would make getting the full subject sharp a challenge. I probably would have moved the oof stem on the left out of the frame (maybe even broken it off, since it’s dead…). Our local milkweed aren’t nearly this far along, so me chasing milkweed will have to wait…
A fine subject and very nicely presented, Chris. Since you were a bit ambivalent about the black at the top and there were a couple of other things that bothered me a trifle, I downloaded this and did a few edits in PS. First, I cropped this to a more vertical presentation, which eliminated the oof foreground twig on the right. I chose to leave the left one not knowing your attitude to removing such items. I pulled the top down to where the background started shifting toward black but still showed a bit of transition.
I used a lights 4 luminosity filter and brought down the brightest highlights just a bit as the inside of the seed head had some that felt a bit too bright (maybe just my taste).
Lastly, the outer husk of the seed pod seemed a bit soft (I’m not sure how with everything else in such beautiful focus) so I selected it and sent it to an old Topaz plugin to adjust microcontrast and tried to bring out more texture in it-not at all sure of my success there. Anyhow, take it for what it’s worth.
