Drama

[SquarePeg38]

Posted this on the weekly “contrast” challenge thread but I like it enough to give it its own thread. Feel free to comment/critique. I bumped up the contrast and did some cloning, smudging and blurring in that top right corner to get rid of some dark spots in the frame. I’m working on getting the compositions right in camera but when I can’t avoid something unwanted, I’m trying to clone not crop whenever possible.

 

[F5 Penguin]

Space on the left is wasted. Everything is exiting the frame rather than moving through it. You and your new toy both show plenty of promise though. Hope to see more pics.

 

[SquarePeg38]

Space on the left is wasted. Everything is exiting the frame rather than moving through it. You and your new toy both show plenty of promise though. Hope to see more pics.

Thanks I appreciate your feedback.

 

[Derrel]

Space on the left is wasted. Everything is exiting the frame rather than moving through it. You and your new toy both show plenty of promise though. Hope to see more pics.

Although the above might sound harsh, it echoes my feelings about the composition of this shot; the left part of the frame is not well-utilized, and the main focal point is off-balance (the spot that's to the right of center), and the upper right quadrant has a feeling of movement, of blur, that draws the eye up and out of the frame. Yes, this does show promise, but the overall feeling, the vibe of this, is off-balanced to me. It's got nice shallow DOF blurring effects, and wonderful lighting, but the exact,precise framing and what's in the frame is not quite to where I'd want to show this image off and talk it up a lot. If one were to crop off 40% of the left side and 25% of the right side, there's sort of a tall in there. But still...this particular flower isn't quite doin' it for me.

I find floral close-ups to be challenging. It's so,so hard to get everything "just so". I've shot a lot of them, and find that many times it's hard to get my vision to come to fruition when I'm photographing a flower or group of flowers. Camera placement, DOF issues, all that stuff can be tricky. I end up rejecting 99% of mine. What looks good through the viewfinder sometimes doesn't come out quite as well once the images are back at the computer. This is I think one where the smudging or cloning gave a motion blur feeling which is acting against the shot; the radiating lines in the upper right corner I think are hurting the shot, pulling the eye out of the frame.

 

[terri36 7]

Hmm. Although I generally agree with how Derrel sees things, in this case I have no issue with this composition. I fear if a crop were made as he suggests, then suddenly the inner parts of the flower would be too front & center, with very little space to float it in. Since you took the trouble in editing to make this flower so soft and floating, I think your composition is spot on - the inner parts of the flower need space in which to float.

I also get what's being said about the eye being led out of the frame but, in this instance, the soft, blurred diagonal lines in the right upper quadrant fill the space and it seems fine to have them go out of the frame. They are merely diagonal lines, not the inner part of the flower.

My main nit here is the size of the darkest spot of the frame, just right of and slightly below center. I think if you had taken the camera and rolled it slightly right, to get more of the center part of the flower, it would have reduced the size of that dark spot. That said, you took this shot with "Contrast" as the goal, and this angle does show the contrast between the lighter and darker values of the picture close together, and very clearly. So, photographer's choice here, IMO.

The colors are beautiful, and I love the overall soft, floating feeling of the shot. This lens looks fun as all git-out.

 

[snowbear118 49]

I see a balance between light and dark, though for me they are somewhat spatially reversed; I tend to like the dark(heavy) on the bottom.

 

[SquarePeg38]

Space on the left is wasted. Everything is exiting the frame rather than moving through it. You and your new toy both show plenty of promise though. Hope to see more pics.

Although the above might sound harsh, it echoes my feelings about the composition of this shot; the left part of the frame is not well-utilized, and the main focal point is off-balance (the spot that's to the right of center), and the upper right quadrant has a feeling of movement, of blur, that draws the eye up and out of the frame. Yes, this does show promise, but the overall feeling, the vibe of this, is off-balanced to me. It's got nice shallow DOF blurring effects, and wonderful lighting, but the exact,precise framing and what's in the frame is not quite to where I'd want to show this image off and talk it up a lot. If one were to crop off 40% of the left side and 25% of the right side, there's sort of a tall in there. But still...this particular flower isn't quite doin' it for me.

I find floral close-ups to be challenging. It's so,so hard to get everything "just so". I've shot a lot of them, and find that many times it's hard to get my vision to come to fruition when I'm photographing a flower or group of flowers. Camera placement, DOF issues, all that stuff can be tricky. I end up rejecting 99% of mine. What looks good through the viewfinder sometimes doesn't come out quite as well once the images are back at the computer. This is I think one where the smudging or cloning gave a motion blur feeling which is acting against the shot; the radiating lines in the upper right corner I think are hurting the shot, pulling the eye out of the frame.

Valid points and very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed comments. I don’t view negative comments as harsh and appreciate the feedback.

Hmm. Although I generally agree with how Derrel sees things, in this case I have no issue with this composition. I fear if a crop were made as he suggests, then suddenly the inner parts of the flower would be too front & center, with very little space to float it in. Since you took the trouble in editing to make this flower so soft and floating, I think your composition is spot on - the inner parts of the flower need space in which to float.

I also get what's being said about the eye being led out of the frame but, in this instance, the soft, blurred diagonal lines in the right upper quadrant fill the space and it seems fine to have them go out of the frame. They are merely diagonal lines, not the inner part of the flower.

My main nit here is the size of the darkest spot of the frame, just right of and slightly below center. I think if you had taken the camera and rolled it slightly right, to get more of the center part of the flower, it would have reduced the size of that dark spot. That said, you took this shot with "Contrast" as the goal, and this angle does show the contrast between the lighter and darker values of the picture close together, and very clearly. So, photographer's choice here, IMO.

The colors are beautiful, and I love the overall soft, floating feeling of the shot. This lens looks fun as all git-out.

Thanks for your input. I’m going to add the original pre-processed shot in a post below.

I see a balance between light and dark, though for me they are somewhat spatially reversed; I tend to like the dark(heavy) on the bottom.

That’s a very interesting way of thinking about this. Thanks for bringing that up.

 

[F5 Penguin]

For the record, no harshness intended. I look to keep things short and to the point. You're doing great imo!