Honest Critique

[tkrahling]

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[LaFoto]

Honest critique?
Hm. I am not the one for that.
What I would like to see is a better assortment of the photos, i.e. I'd prefer them one underneath the other.
Then the flower photo could become a bit more interesting for the viewer if the flower were less in the centre of the photo. Since it seems to be looking towards the left frame, it is wise to crop the photo on the right. If you want to stay with the custom size of a photo, you will have to carefully crop and see how much you will then have to adept your photo cropping some from the bottom and top. That would move the flower to the right and out of the centre.

I would assume you let the camera automatically use its on-camera flash?
That is something that I try to avoid as much as I can in nature photography. The red of the flower now no longer looks natural (to me) and some petals cast some sharp shadows over the others.

Having said that, I want to underline that this is a very crisp, sharp flower photo with a nice DOF/bokeh even, for I find it aesthetically pleasing that the background is still somewhat recognisable.

As to the second photo... I find that eerie. Nice play on "vanishing point" elements, but - that is probably a very personal thing - it does not speak to me that much. Maybe, if a person had run through your picture and come out like a blurred "ghost"...

 

[Pax]

I think the first picture has quite nice colours, tkrahling, and nice DOF, as LaFoto mentioned, but the flower is also a bit blurry on the right. And it's too much in the center, for my taste. I think cropping the right edge a bit would make the picture look more interesting. It would also take the blurred green something at the lower right corner away, which has nothing to do with the flower and takes away some of my focus on it.

As for the second: I don't know, it makes me feel gloomy and trapped somehow. I think the wall on the right that ends just above the "eye" of the viewer gives me this impression. Were you kneeling when you took this picture of is that the natural height of that wall?

 

[tkrahling]

I was kneeling because the wall was short and light from the outside would have effected the eerieness of the photo. As for the flower you are both quite right, not only did I crop it way too much, but the green in the bottom right detracts from the subject. Thanks.

 

[slipper]

you should almost never center your object. maybe a better idea would be to have your significant other holding the flower in front of him/her towards the camera. the flower being in focus and the person slightly out of focus. if you absolutely needed to fix the picture, try darkening the background.

the b&w photo, i assume you took at night. usually b&w photos have much more meaning than color photos however the harsh flash reflecting off the near wall is too distracting. next time try this shot during the day with a lot more available light without the flash or with the flash but with a good homemade diffuser as well as a higher f-stop. fiddle around with different angles.

 

[Tkraz]

As a rule, when presenting your photographs, always leave space surrounding them.

Never cramp them up together, allow them to breathe. Photographs will become jealous of their own space if cramped up.