New to Photography....looking for some critique on my work.

[MikeyTopping]

A butterfly in the garden....

I am undecided about the cropping and faming of the photo....does the focussing work well?

I do like the colour in the picture....

Please let me know your thoughts.... thanks Mikey

 

[Bynx]

Your processing has done some bad things to the yellow in the image. The butterfly, being the main subject, should be more pronounced, so a tighter crop is called for. Colorwise, everything looks good.

 

[Forkie]

The colours look great, but I looked at the photo before reading what you wrote and I only noticed there was a butterfly once I'd read it and looked again!

You need to either crop right in to the butterfly or tone down the other colours a bit - the butterfly is just lost.

 

[Trever1t]

I agree with the above two posts. While it does have pretty colors and all it's not really showcasing the subject well.

 

[rokvi]

Maybe something like this:




Just a rough one. Brought the reds and yellows down, selective dodging on others.
Oh and a tighter crop.

 

[Trever1t]

Not sure what you did on the re-edit but the butterfly is now totally out of focus.

 

[rokvi]

Hmm Ye it does, didn't look too bad on my screen though. maybe OP could sharpen it on his.

 

[Jaemie]

This photo suffers from too many flowers, too many different colours, and a subject that is too small in the frame to make a visual impact. Additionally, the colours are "off" as others have mentioned.

You really should get closer to your subject for shots like this. In this crop, the butterfly isn't as lost among the flowers. But, since it's a crop, you lose resolution.

 

[MikeyTopping]

Thank you for all the comments.....they are helping me understand my work.

I think i suffered with the fact if ind it very easy to relate to the image as it is my garden and i can obviously place that image, where as the casual viewer of the image can not.

I found it really tough getting close to the butterfly as the little bugger does not stay still for long. I used a 200mm lens for this shot, not having my 300mm lens to hand.

I have included the RAW image....i am using quite cheap processing software, i am unsure whether to invest in something like CS6, its hard to justify £600 at this point, what are your thoughts on this? Is it worth it? I could possibly purchase it in a couple of months.

Mikey

 

[fjrabon]

you don't need CS6 unless you are doing heavy editing. Lightroom would probably more than enough for you.

 

[Jaemie]

you don't need CS6 unless you are doing heavy editing. Lightroom would probably more than enough for you.

I agree. Save your money.