Yellow Rose

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

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Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Suddenly everything is blooming. And it’s windy. And there is no lovely soft light from clouds. And no lovely raindrops or dewdrops. But that hardly matters because it’s windy. And it’s hay fever season. I’ll try to make do.

Specific Feedback

The BG was messy with no chance to soften it by stacking at a wide aperture, and it wasn’t pretty in any case, so I went in tight. The OOF petals in the back have strange looking edge effects from the lens – I don’t care for it but left it as shot. Distracting?

Technical Details

Screenshot 2024-05-01 at 9.11.21 AM

Global shadows and highlights in LR. Some edge burning and a little minor cloning in PS. Cropped to 32% of the original frame. I didn’t notice the SS at the time – I was handholding and had been shooting another bloom in deep shade. High ISO is not the penalty it used to be but I could pay more attention.

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2

I think this works as posted, Diane. I looked at the out of focus petals because you mentioned them, but my eye tends to stay on the in-focus portions and the out of focus areas don’t pull my eye.

I here you about the wind. We’ve had plenty of moisture, but no calm. There are a couple of natives that I really want to get and I’m about at the point of picking a couple and doing studio work with them (one is very common and growing all over our property and I have quite a bit of the other in some of out gardens).

3

I usually have trouble getting yellows right. You’ve done an excellent job in conveying softness here, Diane, especially with oof parts at front and back. The complementary BG color adds to the effect, and, like Dennis, I only noticed the distant petals once you’d mentioned them, and they don’t bother me. I also like how you’ve cropped the rose to make an interesting portrait.

4

Thanks, @Dennis_Plank and @Mike_Friel! Sometimes stalking flowers is almost in the same league as stalking animals.