Your honest option

[karimmaalouf]

Hi

what do you think of this picture? and why?

i am submitting this picture to a local photo contest themed: farmer pictures.

this is a picture of a Nepali farmer carrying on her forehead mud and gravel to build her house...

do you think it has any chance of winning?

thanks

 

[Bogs]

the background is too sharp and too busy. also try separating subject from bg. there is a lot of different composition techniques that you could read up on on the internet

 

[JSER]

Too confusing and no

 

[Catchmo]

It feels crooked to me. It is confusing in the sense that I don't really know where I should be looking.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I think you zoomed in too close and lost the scene. She is really close to the edge. There is almost no path to be scene and the background is super busy. Plus her arms are covering her face. candids work better with a little facial expression.

 

[Jeff92]

Idk why but it took me like15 seconds to realize which direction she was walking. Im looking on my phone and I couldnt find her arms, I expected they were on the basket. I think there is too much background, it had me looking away from the lady

 

[Frequency]

O, Jeff, that was a funny analysis; how can a woman's front be confused with the back... ......just joking...

The problem has been pointed out; a wide aperture was very essential here to blur out the b/g... further she needs be more to the front so that she is away from the border, but yet to reach the center

Regards

 

[SCraig]

She's so close to those trees I don't think it would matter what aperture you used, they would still be in focus.

The background, as has been mentioned, doesn't work at all. I would try a tight portrait crop and try and eliminate all of that dead space on the left. I don't know if it will help or not but the majority of that background really needs to go away.

 

[karimmaalouf]

thanks guys for your feedback.

i have to agree with Scraig, she is too close to the trees so any change to the aperture would have kept the background in focus ( there was about 50 cm between her and the trees).

@ jeff: yes her arms are not where you expect them to be, but believe me, this basket was sooooo heavy, minimum was her pushing her head forward with her arms!

Also, after reading all your comments i was trying to find a way to remove the busy background and focus more on her, without cropping the whole picture! i came up with that, what do you think... it kinda made the picture simpler and focused the attention on her, no? (even if i am not a big fan of photoshop manipulation...)

 

[cgipson1]

The vertical lines in the background (buildings) indicate the horizon is off (tilted).. need to straighten it up.

The combination of close and distant background in the shot make it a little interesting, but the close background is a bit busy and distracting. The subject has decent background separation due to the colors of her and her clothing, and even the lightiing. It would really help to be able to see her face... that lack, is what kills the shot for me.

Framing is much better in your second post.. but the selective color is horrible! Not a good choice, IMO!