Photo Critique

Friday Photo Critique #20

on Feb 19th 2010 with 28 comments

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

  1. Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  2. Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
  3. 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

Photo Critique

Photographer: Jessica Hannon

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!.

David Appleyard is davidappleyard on Themeforest
 
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David Appleyard is a designer and writer based in the UK. He manages Tuts+, along with having founded several design websites including Design Shack and PixelsDaily.  

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  • Max

    Beautiful sunset.
    I do not like very much the HDR style (in general). It’s a good HDR but the landscape, the beach, the sky… seems to be a little bit unreal.

  • Markus Nielsen

    It’s a really nice image. Well done.
    Maybe i would use a wider lens, and then try to focus on the rocks below, with a f/22. :)

  • http://www.ree-she.com Rishi Luchun

    Can’t put my finger on it, but it feels like something is missing from the shot. Maybe its the HDR effect, but it feels like the sky/clouds doesn’t gel well with the with the sea and sand. I could imagine this photo having more a dramtic effect in greyscale.

    That’s my 2 pence on the subject :)

  • Richard S. Browne

    Beautiful image. Love the colours and the texture of the water.

    If anything, the only thing I would maybe try to do is tilt down a little to lose the very top part where the colours in the sky are a little less active – maybe just crop it out in post – which would raise the horizon a little in frame.

  • http://www.imageserenity.com/blog Amandalynn

    I agree with Markus, the rocks in the foreground are what I would try to emphasize in this photo… there’s something about them that makes the photo more interesting than just the waterscape itself(though don’t get me wrong, that’s lovely also, and the range of colors captured is excellent). A wide angle lens would be a good idea with this scene, or stepping back and re-framing would also work.

    I think also, for my own taste I would maybe try to get a little more brightness and slightly more contrast(not much, just enough to make those colors stronger) either in camera, or in post.

    Great photo.

  • http://www.phillipjacobs.com Phillip Jacobs

    You split the screen with the horizon and so I think you should have taken 2/3 of the screen with the sky instead. I also think you should have setup further to the left of the big brown rock so that it was not on screen. That thing is distracting me from the rest of the picture which is a nice photo. It appears to be a little under exposed.

    You have taken some very good photos in the past and I like this one but if you could make those changes I think the photo would be a 10!

  • http://photographyforsoul.com Can Berkol

    I think the light is off balance and it is due to post production. But it’s just a taste issue. The photo is really good.

  • G-Man

    I always love to look at seascapes, this would make an excellent pan with some re-composure and at a lower POV, make it more about the sea the sunset and the sky. Very noisy, run it through ninja or viveza. Kick up the saturation and curves, I find it a bit dull and flat. You should also fix the blue contrast; seascapes should be warm and sensual. F/22 with your manual focus set to infinity.
    Thank you for allowing us to CC your wonderful image.

  • H

    I’m not a fan of HDR (not many really are), and the foreground has that tell-tale “crunchiness”. The rock in the foreground right has a bit of “halo” in exposure around it as though curves or levels were brushed in to compensate.

    As with any successful image, the question has to be “what’s the focus?” Am I supposed to be looking at the sunset and clouds? Or are the rocks in the foreground supposed to capture my attention. Or if both, I need some leading lines to guide me around the image, but as this one was captured, there is no obvious dominant feature.

    It’s a nice image, just perhaps not portfolio-bound.

  • http://tomdahm.tumblr.com Tom

    Great opportunity you found to shoot…
    Personally, Id like to see the same shot lighter, and at a straighter (less from above) pov. (personal preference stuff)

    I think you should have used a wide angle lens as well, trying to capture more of the rocky foreground and maybe kneeled down just a touch.

  • http://www.jessicahannon.com Jessica

    Thanks for the great feedback! I’m still learning and developing my skills so I really appreciate the tips and advice you’ve all provided! I’ll take them into account when shooting in the future :-)

  • http://flavors.me/noods Dan

    Personally can’t get with the HDR trend, just not for me. I think this shot would have looked just fine with some less extreme post work and 2/3rds sky to beach. I like the photo besides that.

  • http://flavors.me/noods Dan

    Personally can’t get with the HDR trend, just not for me. I think this shot would have looked just fine with some less extreme post work and 2/3rds sky to beach. I like the photo besides that, particularly the intensity of the clouds.

  • earthrokk

    First off, good work. I like the image in general, but it is not as good as it could has been. In this case, while the post production could use a little work the larger issue is the composition. I think you could have a great image if you would have camped on the rocks and use a wide lens. There is just so much going that its impossible to get a feeling of focus. Pick a foreground and get in with the best perspective. Next time go for more of the gold also. Sunlight is always more interesting at dusk.

  • http://www.timnealon.com Tim Nealon

    Nice photo. I like the HDR look, despite what people say, there are not many good options for capturing the whole dynamic range of what is in your picture. A graduated ND filter perhaps, but anyways, I like the look.

    I agree with some of the other people in here about the rocks. I would have shot it at something like f16 or f22. The other thing I would have done with the foreground is place that moss patch, or whatever it is, somewhere else. Perhaps centered to a third of the way into the frame. With it being cut off, it kinda’ leads you our of the picture when the eye grabs onto it. It would be a lot more interesting placed according to the rule of thirds.

    Another idea, depending on what was actually there, out of frame, I have no idea, but I may have eliminated the dark clouds on the right. Perhaps framing the shot with more of the oranges and yellows. I think those colors mesh better with your foreground than the blues on the right.

    All in all, great picture.

  • Todd

    THE GOOD:
    Wonderful color, definition, composition. This has the clay in it to make something beautiful, and with some work, it can be.

    THE BAD:
    There’s no one thing to focus on. Is the picture about the sky? The Rocks below? The ocean? It all seems to compete for your attention, and I think that the HDR treatment in this case, which makes “everthing important”, makes nothing important instead.

  • http://www.gregveit.com Greg Goodale

    Once again HDR has made quite an eye-catching image from a fairly mundane scene and composition, which seems to be the reason why this approach is gaining so much acceptance.
    I don’t this is a keeper. For my tastes there are too many compositional elements vying for attention here – the stunning sky, the wild sea, the rocks, the kelp… It might have been better to focus on one foreground and one background subject and eliminate everything else. This might have been achieved by shooting from a low angle from in the sea or on top of the rocks.
    Sadly your HDR software seems to introduce patches of random brightness to the images – a problem I know well – which makes it seem as if the kelp is miraculously brighter than other parts of the beach. It has also made your image very noisy (you can avoid this by exposing your image brighter than you normally would, which means less noise in your darkest exposure). The resulting noise means that you can do less to crop the image.
    I would retrieve the middle image from from your bracketed exposure and use some conventional editing rather than settle for this effect, which looks like you tried to dodge and burn the image while wearing a blindfold.
    It is not a disaster, just a lesson that perhaps not all instant, automatic methods necessarily give worthwhile results.

  • Haley

    I think all in all it’s a really beautiful photo. Nicely done!

  • http://jeremiespangrude.daportfolio.com/ Jeremie Spangrude

    The shot is beautiful, but I too feel that if you put the horizon @ the 2/3 mark and maybe even slightly mask out the HDR rocks/sand/kelp on bottom for a more natural feel to them, it would be even better. Beautiful color tho I love it!

  • http://CPDIGITALDARKROOM.COM Carlos P

    This isn’t even quite that HDR-ish. I actually dont believe it is. By that I mean I dont think it was processed through programs like Photomatix. The tell-tale signs of it being done that way are simply not there.

    I do think this was adjusted some in post processing but horribly done. I would have liked for the clouds to have been more dramatic and more contrast in them. The whole photo seems flat to me. And there seems to be too much blue for my taste. It would have been nice to have captured the shoot about 5 or 10 minutes before this point and have done a TRUE-HDR photograph.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/tofer/ Chris

    Great shot, the HDR might be a little excessive but I guess it’s a question of taste ..

    The thing that strikes me is that there’s actually several pictures in this one shot, looks like you might of tried to put too much in the frame ?
    One option would have been ( alittle hard now) would have been to get down lower and keep the rocks out, just keeping the seaweed ?

    Keep it up

  • Chris

    As has been said already, this needs a better crop — from the camera, not in photoshop, that is.

  • http://www.m-photography.ca Melanie

    I find that the image is rich, but needs more light. The HDR effect may be stronger if the image had less of a “muddy” look with the post processing…beautiful image.

  • Jeff

    Beautiful image and has more potential. I am really into HDR as a photographer and the hdr is fine but slightly dark overall. The foreground could be a little lighter in post processing. Overall nice.

  • http://www.travellinglost.com/ Travel Photography

    I think that nothing gets really the atention in this photo. The mix of warm and cold colos, the clouds, sea and sand, and that thing on the bottom-right corner calling your eyes made it a difficult mix to look at. The intention was OK, but seems to be a lack of composition work, looks like it was a quick photo more than a decided one.

  • http://www.travellinglost.com/ Travel Photography

    I think that nothing gets really the atention in this photo. The mix of warm and cold colos, the clouds, sea and sand, and that thing on the bottom-right corner calling your eyes made it a difficult mix to look at.

    I’m also unable to see any lines in it. As I said, there are too much elements, and the lines defined by the horizon and the beach looks like are getting out of the pic. Looks unconclused. The angle is not very good I think, which may be the poiint of all the other things.

    The intention was OK, but seems to be a lack of composition work, looks like it was a quick photo more than a decided one.

    But hey, I’m nobody to judge, am I?

  • Bill

    Great colors. Your composition is off though as there are too many objects that are distracting the attention from your main subject. You have the seaweed and the rocks at the bottom, the surf at what looks like high tide, the setting or rising sun with the rain to the right.

    I shoot the beach often and would recommend that the next time you get the opportunity to shoot a similar beautiful scene try shooting it right on the beach. Think about reducing distractions and focus more on one subject. I would have placed the sun so that it was near the upper right of the photo and my main subject would have been the beach.

    I am not a professional photographer or an expert but I have learned a lot over the past few months by reading about art and photography. My photos are improving but I still have a lot to learn. I hope my opinion helps you.

  • http://pixeldeng.com Adrian

    i really love that picture.