Taken at an old homesite we discovered while driving around in Ozark National Forest in N. Central AR. I got tons of great photos with my new Sony F707, but this was my favorite for this challenge. It was cloudy when I took it. I had to lighten it some, desat'd the blue, magenta and cyan, increased contrast a little, did an unsharp mask after I resized it. Hoping for a 6 with this one. Wish the sky didn't blow out.
Statistics
Place: 69 out of 74 Avg (all users): 4.5408 Avg (commenters): 4.5000 Avg (participants): 4.4918 Avg (non-participants): 4.6216 Views since voting: 1236 Votes: 98 Comments: 9 Favorites: 0
Greetings from Critique Club: Silver Fox
I'm doing a critique on the flower, not on the Leading Lines Challenge as I do not believe that this fit the challenge.
Personally, I love flower photos and the more natural, the better, such as the one you've captured here. I think perhaps that you should have looked for one that you could have "shot" from above rather from below, as the whiteness of the sky has sort of blown the flower away from the person looking at it.
You've captured the yellow nicely, but I would like to have seen some of the greenery around it at the same time.
The focus and lighting are good, but I notice that you've cropped off a piece of the top petal, was this on purpose? or were you just going to large with it?
What you have to remember sometimes is that BIGGER is not always best,sometimes keeping your photograph smaller and bringing in some of the background would enhance your flower with some visual impact, but only you can decide what is best. There really isn't an aspect of this flower photo that makes it stand out and shout "look at me", but at least you tried, and you entered it in the Challenge, so please keep on shooting and keep on trying your best to become better at what you're doing. . .
Sincerely, Silver Fox
Oh why oh why do we keep on seeing flowers in every challenge that have no business being there???? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I appologize for my blunt comment.... I guess I shouldn't post comments so early in the morning! :-) I guess you were my chosen victim! So sorry.... don't get me wrong, I don't mind pics of flowers or cats or kids.... lemme try and redeem myself....
Lighting and focus: good use of light and dark tones, the shallow DOF keeps the focus on the flower
Respect of theme: Sorry but has nothing to do, IMO, with the theme. Leading lines should be a focussed trajectory that leads your eye to a desired point in the photo. I do not see this in this photo.
cropping & composition: a part from the top petal being cut the cropping is good. The colors seem a bit washed out. You probably had a grey sky.
I think I see the lines you are trying to use to go to your subject. But for the challege they are suppose to be the main focus that takes your eye to the subject. My eye here goes right to the subject and does not see the lines... Nice focus though on the daph!
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
