Maybe use a flash?

The picture looks plain and flat, a depth of field would be nice. Trying to fix this using soft focus or applying sharpness/blur to selected areas..

In this photo i would’ve used flash to light up the person in the front. Maybe a reflector from the right side would help to light up the in the front person. The person in the back should be placed somewhere else in my opinion, maybe a bit more on the right side of the picture. The focus is completely wrong here, there is too much focus on the corns in the front. I also think it would be better to change the apparenture a bit to get a better depth of field. In my opinion the camera angle is a bit boring, more of a “Frog” perspective rather than a normal perspective would be much more engaging to look at.

Personally If I was taking the shot I would have focused on the person rather than the crop.

People in this sort of situtation make quite intresting subjects. I would have focused on him and the crop he was picking. Then kept a high depth of field on the background.

I really like the colours and think you did a good job of making everything look so calm and pleasent.

I might have also lowered my camera, in order to make it look like you were looking up to this man, showing his importance in socitey. Though this might be slightly over the top…….

Overall I quite like the photo and see what you were trying to do but think a photo of the actual person would have been more intresting and appealing.

Mmm… i think i don’t like this photo for 3 reasons:

1. I can’t find easily the main subject of the image: is the corn or maybe are the laborers?

2. The composition is off balance: the left part of the image is “heavy”, full of things and too dark compared to the part on the right side

3. Sometimes using a flash is a good idea. We can’t see the face, the expression of this man at work: it might have been the most interesting thing of the photo.

The wheat appears to be pretty sharp, but everything else looks soft. Not “artistic shallow depth of field” soft, but “whoops i screwed that one up” soft. If it IS intentional, its a little too subtle.

It would appear the view angle is relatively wide, but the lens used to get that angle was an extremely cheap one thats just unacceptably soft at the edges and corners. But again.. the wheat is pretty sharp, even clear over to the edge of the frame. Assuming this was not cropped, then I’d say either stop your lens down to keep your fore-most harvester-guy in focus, or open it up to decrease the depth of field and lose more focus on him.

Also couldn’t hurt to setup a reflector or softbox or something to throw a little more light on him, if indeed he’s meant to be an important subject in the photo, along with the foreground wheat.

you should have turned your camera a little bit to left and a bit more up. That way you could have reduced the distraction created by that man on the left edge of the frame and you could have balanced the overal composition by capturing more of the sky.

The expression on the farmers face leaves much to be desired. I would have loved to have seen the expression on his face as it looks like he is communicating with the other farmer. If you exposed for him, the rest of the picture would have been under-exposed, and therefore the rest of the picture is perfectly exposed leaving the subject under-exposed. A flash is probably the only option to get both the background and the subject properly exposed

Last thing: The focus is on the crop, where I think the farmer would have made more of an interesting subject or focus.

Thanks

Ty

OK, as the previous post have suggested, there are some problems with the image that needs to be addressed. I will just hint at the three that I think needs the most attention when shooting.

First, the subject. This is one of the issues that I sometimes struggle with in my work, but I now think about more even without my camera. If you are going to include everything, then do just that. Pull back and capture everything that interested you from the start. If you want to focus on one particular element of the image, then focus only on that one thing. This image clearly has to many elements and is not very clear on what’s most important. Focus on what is most important and add one extra element that enhance the subject.

Two, the wide angle lens is not best for this image. A standard 18-35mm would hit the sweet spot. You may have opened the lens up some more to get more light from the people and more bokeh for the background.

Last, use monochrome/duotone. This would deliver impact, something that is totally missing from this image.

This image cannot be fixed, but it can be improved. Next time, remember some of the suggestions from this blog when your our shooting.

Thanks.

earthrokk

Look and choose your subject carefully.

I love the color result of your photo and I don’t think I’ll be needing a flash here. But I’ve noticed that the photo has no definite subject. The camera focuses on the wheat but there’s a frontal person that distracts your photo. It would have been a good composition if there is no person in front (let say, they’re in the background) and yes, also a depth of field will do if applied.

Cheers,

JHAY

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who left constructive criticism. This is exactly what I was hoping for. All of this advice is really useful, especially the suggestions of using a fill flash – that’s going to be next on my shopping list. Also the comments about changing the subject and the angle are great advice. I’ve taken it all on board for next time.

A little bit about the photo itself. I’m a hobbyist photographer with a lot to learn. The photo was taken under less-than-optimal circumstances in northern Sudan. It wasn’t posed – these villagers were harvesting their wheat in order to eat later that day so I had to find and capture a composition quickly before all they finished their work. I was also on the road myself, on a bicycle journey through the region, when I came upon this chance meeting, so wasn’t carrying a large range of lenses, reflectors etc.

None of that is an excuse for a flawed image – just a bit of background info to put the photo into context. It’s good how no context is included in the Friday Critique, though, as it allows the image to stand on it’s own two feet (or not!).

This has been really helpful to me. Huge thanks again to all who commented (and to PhotoTuts+ for featuring the image).

Tom

It seems that it was a rather hesitant shot. The focus is in the lower right corner, however there are two subjects in the picture, nothing in the center of the picture, sky look blurry.. I just feel as if the picture was taken a second before it was needed to

I feel that the subject needs to be the man in the foreground rather than the wheat/barley/corn/broccoli.

Also how do you submit a photo for critique?

Yeah, I agree with Lase, the subject must be the worker(your focus must be on the hand of the worker or at least of the ear from the hands of the worker). Also, the first worker face is underexposed, I would like to see the expression of his face(hardly work, the sweat).

I know this might sound silly and maybe it is, but how do you get your photo featured on a photo critique?

Like everyone the first that caught my eye was the lack of a face on the worker, but the second thing I noticed is it’s hard to distinguish what the relationship between the worker and the wheat really is. Is he harvesting, weeding, digging…
But the photo has some great strengths too. the clouds above and the greenery below all help lead your eye towards an already strong focal point.
This is a really quick hack job of it, (i just dont have time to isolate the wheat entirely) but if we add some radial blur it now gives us the impression he is reaching for the wheat but we don’t have the expectation of being able to see facial features.

http://www.zumodrive.com/share/2v5DMzQ2Yj

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