Friday Photo Critique #19
Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image.
It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued. Your response will also be displayed with a link to your website or portfolio, so be sure to enter it correctly when submitting a comment!
Quick Ground Rules
- Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
- Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
- You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.
Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!
The Photograph
Photographer: Katharina Franz
Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.
The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site, and you’ll also be given priority to feature your own work in a future Friday Photo Critique!.
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I love the colours within this frame, and the selective focus is used in a great way to point the viewer’s eyes right where you want them.
One way to ensure the eyes are not distracted by other visual element would be to crop out the bottom third of the photograph. The blurred colour is very dominant, and competes for attention with the yellow pedals in focus.
If you don’t want to crop the bottom I would try to de-saturate the yellow colours leaving the pedals in focus to have the most vibrant yellow.
I actually rather like this picture, the main focus is appealingly off centre and I rather like the way that it’s surrounded by an arc of out of focus flower buds, framing it beautifully.
The colours are nicely captured and work very well together, however the focus does seem (on this sized reproduction at least) to be a tiny bit soft with the sharp focus being on the leaves below the flower, although this could mostly be pulled back by a selective use of sharpening on the appropriate part of the flower bud. Apart from that it’s a very pleasing and well executed photo.
Nice picture, I don’t have much to add. Perhaps the main flower is slightly out of focus
As gafields I think that this is all in all not a bad picture, but if you ask for critique I would say that the main flower is out of focus, too. Because of the very big blurry other flowers in the foreground it’s hart to concentrate on the focus point. Your eyes keep flipping up and down.
I think the picture has a little lack of uniqueness and attraction.
In this Case I would like it if the center flower would be even more centered and it would be great it there where less of the blurry ones in the foreground. I also would try to sharpen the water drops a bit more to make them a bit more interesting and add them to the focus.
The colours are very strong but in my eyes kind of boring. With a nice photo-filter the picture could become a real little masterpiece. It could give the picture even mor depth and add a little mytic or dreamy effekt, that makes the picture a bit more unusual and interesting. I would think of a well set gradient or a bit of desaturation or even both oth them.
But if you wanted to show the pure Nature this would ofcourse be the wrong choice. (:
.Salim
i like it. maybe if the main flower was just down a hair in the compisition. but that is just being very picky.
I would just mask off the Main flower and run unsharp mask to make it a little sharper. Other than that great pic, IMHO.
I think I may have singled out the subject flower by eliminating the secondary flower in the middle left of the frame. Either by Photoshop or by simply pulling it down out of frame. I like the angle of attack.
I like this photo. I like the colors and I do like the raindrops. Both thumbs up!
This is a great photo. Great approach on composition and subject. Camera wise, if you can, open the lens a little more to increase the blur on surrounding objects. I think that a wash of color on the background and foreground will increase the contrast and impact/drama(Make the bud feel more isolated) of the image. I agree with the above comments in that you should run an Unsharpen Mask on this. I did it at 100/1.5/3 and saw more impactful results. I also thin you should run a little shadow/highlight. Knock back the show to bring out a little more life and knock down the highlights(very slight) to add just a touch of detail to the yellows. These two adjustments will take the image to stunning.
Great Job.
Really nice. If I were to change anything, it would be to crop it a little tighter around the main subject, but that’s about it.
Very nice, love the composition
As mentioned above i think the main flower is slightly out, only minor criticism!
I would have to agree that I think a slightly closer crop would enhance this image. The quantity of yellow in the foreground feels a little overpowering to the main subject.
Other than that, this is beautiful.
I agree with the foreground comment. It is a bit distracting from the main subject. Perhaps either cropped a bit more or bring the brightness down on the foreground flowers. Otherwise very nice
I like it, overall, but I would have cropped the photo in some to eliminate most of the yellow in the foreground as those bright yellow spots distract from the main flower that is in focus.
I really can’t say much of anything about this shot. The depth is very nice, and the colors are fantastic. Perhaps it’s a hair (like 1/3 of a stop MAX) underexposed?
I guess I’d like to see a tighter crop. I like that the subject flower isn’t dead center, but the big blurred flower right in the center-bottom keeps pulling my eye and I think it’d be a lot stronger cropped in so that you only see a hint of that flower on the bottom, and crop off some of the left-most flowers and a smidge off the right and the top. I’m a big fan of negative space, but I don’t think it’s doing a whole lot for this one.
Really nit-picky stuff. It’s a great shot! Nice job.
I agree with the above comment. Overall, it’s excellent. But if I had to be picky I would say the big blurry flower is distracting and I prefer it when it’s mostly cropped out. (I just scrolled up the page to leave out the flower)
But that’s nit picking, great shot!
I would have cropped it down a little more so that the flowers in the foreground aren’t so distracting.
I agree with Alex. I love the photo but if there is anything (anything at all) to change and that would be it. But it is nit picky!
Pretty darned good photo to start with. If it were me, I would have cropped a bit more off the foreground of that unfocused area (as I think was stated above). It’s a bit distracting from the subject in my opinion, when it should in fact it should be doing just the opposite.
I love this shot in many ways. But, I can’t help but think that it should be cropped to the center three. Yes, I know one is out of focus….but I think it may work.
Its full of colors and looks beautiful
I liked the emphasis given on the colors that add a good contrast to the image. I would have rather preferred capturing this photo as a landscape instead of portrait. Also zooming in a bit would have helped get rid of the blurred flower buds at the bottom of this image and catch the viewers attention on the object. Also the droplets on the bud would have been a good subject to capture.