Photo Critique #85

Photo Critique #85

on May 20th 2011 with 21 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!

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

Photo Details & Inspiration

  • Nikon D90
  • 50 mm lens
  • 1/60
  • f5
  • ISO 400

An attempt to shoot a detail of a vineyard, focusing on one its fruits. What is not focused, in the background, is the rest of the vineyard in all its length. Note that no fill flash used because when I shot this photo I didn’t have one yet. I’m a novice, a rookie, a newbie in photography. But I’m humbly hungry to learn.

Photographer: Alessandro Marengo

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. Interested in submitting your own photo? You can do so here!

 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I was raised in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. After high school, I left for Western Kentucky University where I obtained degrees in photojournalism and cultural anthropology. I am currently employed by CityBeat, an arts and entertainment weekly in Cincinnati. The work I am doing here is very rewarding and I suspect it will continue to be. I am available for freelance work in all areas of photography.  

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  • Ett

    First off – great photo.

    The first thing that really hit me was the composition. A scene like this has such a long background, and your eyes want to follow through and see where it goes, but the subject is in the way in this shot. Standing half a step further to the left would have placed the grapes right off the path, and not on the very edge, which I think would have made a better photo. Also, the bark on the right edge of the photo is a little distracting, so I’d have cropped the photo a little bit.

    Like I said, though – this is a good photo. I like it :)

  • Kenny LaFountaine

    Nice shot, I probably wouldve gone a little bit over exposed to help bring out the purple, or HDR. I like the composition but the shot looks dull in color.

  • Roland Bogaerts

    The converting lines in the left of your photo enforce the feeling of depth, already achieved by the shallow depth of field, very much. Nicely done :-

  • http://www.jemelinphoto.net/blog/ Stephane

    Hi,

    For me there’s nothing wrong in this photo, but some points could have been taken in consideration to make it better.

    1st: The composition. It’s too bad that the leafs are cut in the upper of the frame. It woud have been nice to frame a bit higher to take advantage of those leafs that close the frame and give a balance with the grape. And making one or two steps on the left would isolate the leafs from the wine trees.

    2nd. The light. I think that the light here is not very interesting. It would have been more dramatic with an early or late sunlight, or with dramatic clouds.

    Hope it helps, and sorry for my english… Have a nice day,
    Stephane
    Geneva – Switzerland

  • Charles Mo

    Hi,

    I think the photo has potential to be quite revealing. I feel maybe to achieve more impact the leaves you see at the top centre does cause some distraction from the grapes. The slight edge of the vine truck onthe right could also go.

  • Writersbloc

    I agree with Stephane’s points- but it’s still a nice photo that you could really bring out in post. I’d probably crop out the vine cutting into the right side of the image.

  • Michael Kitchen

    I’m probably just as new to DSLRs as you are, but I think this is a really nice shot. I’d imagine a fill flash would have more likely ruined this shot than helped it, given that you aren’t a pro with pro equipment.

    If I’m being super picky, I wonder if the shot would be slightly better at a smaller aperture to put the further branch a little more in focus? It’s possible. Also, have you considered cropping the branch out of the right side of the photo? It might be worth a try, even though it pushes the focal point of the image to the side a bit more.

    In any case, nice job!

  • http://lifebythelens.wordpress.com/ Mark

    I am also a complete amateur, so take this with a grain of salt.

    The leaf at the end of the vine (in the left 1/3 of the image) was too distracting to me. It really drew my attention away from the cluster of fruit, which I wanted to be the focus of the image. I think a tighter crop may help balance that out, something like this:

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/lifebythelens/misc/052011-tuts-crop.jpg

    In this composition, all of the elements are still there, but to me it appears to be more balanced and less distracting.

  • http://www.caronphoto.com Michael

    I think I know what you were trying to do with the leading lines of the background trees, but your grapes are more at the quarter point than third. I might try a different crop/zoom to shift the grapes a bit to the left.

    Try 8×6 ratio from upper right corner to a point where the top branch acts like a frame across the entire top of the photo. I might be off a bit, but I tried it and I like it better that way. Grapes a bit larger too as a result.

    Other than that, nothing to complain about. It’s very nice from this amateur’s POV!

  • http://www.flickr.com/matt-402/ matt182

    is a very pretty picture.
    quiet, simple … but amazing.
    I just wanted to see some warm tones made ​​with post processing.
    I do not have much to criticize, too, am newbie …
    and I’m excited to buy my first 50 mm.

    Greetings from Brazil. (:

  • Colo43

    I agree with Michael,
    i would of shot more to the right of the grapes to send them to the left of the photo and then zoomed in on the grapes from a lower angle.
    there is no right or wrong,its a personal choice.
    Great shot by the way.

  • DeAnn

    I as well am an amatuer, and this is actually my first post on the givers and growers website. The first thing that struck me was the clarity. I love how the powder on the grapes is preserved. It gives a very real, very natural feel.
    Against all others, I actually like the vine on the right, to me, it gives orientation, you know where the grapes are coming from…the only advice I may have for you is this. The one thing I found distracting is the vine/pole on the bottom right of the bunch of grapes. It looks like it is coming out of the grapes. Perhaps if you went a step to the right, you could commit more to the vine on the right of the screen, and then move that pole/vine away from the bunch.
    Over all I think it is a really good picture. Where did you take it?

  • http://www.philcrean.com Phil Crean

    Like some others I would crop slightly on the right to remove the bark and also boost contrast a little in post processing. Cracking shot!
    Phil Crean

  • anames

    I personally love the composition, it’s kind of modern, and even though there’s a lot of going on, the main subject is still in focus and there’s a blurred path in the back, which gives the nice depth to the photo.

    I don’t know why, but I find that “branch” (sorry, don’t know the terminology) on the right kind of distracting, so I would have probably cropped that if it had been my photo. Also, if you want to keep it in colour, you should boost it a bit, as well as the contrast, make it more “inviting”, cause it looks kind of flat at the moment.

  • Gayle

    I would crop on all sides to take out the distracting post on right, bright sky at top, distracting leaf to left of grapes, and thus narrows the picture. Then I would increase the contract and decrease the brightness. This helps focus on the subject but still give a hint of the perspective of the vineyard.

  • http://www.australianphotoprints.com/home.html Michael

    Great concept, nice DOF, the grapes are nice and sharp, you could try a smaller aperture to make the effect even more dramatic, maybe the photo could have been a little ‘warmer’ in colour temperature, it feels a little cold.

    A small crop on the right, to get rid of the branch that is just visible . . . otherwise a great idea and well executed!

  • badai madara

    very cool picture,
    I also want to learn to photograph like that,
    hopefully I can have a digital SLR camera Nikon VR D3100 in a couple weeks…
    hehehehe

  • http://videotuts.ru/ Alexandros

    Mmmm.
    I want it to eat. Really cool photo!!!

  • Owain

    I agree with cropping the vine on the right out. I think the back grounds trails off a little to much I would have moved to the right a little so that the grapes were slightly more left. Just my point of veiw tho. Good picture.

    Hi from Wales =)

  • http://www.jasonbartimus.com Jason

    Take all of this with a grain of salt as I am a beginner and my opinion will be skewed to my personal taste. First off the picture is great. I only want to add my 4 cents on what MIGHT make this image better.

    1.) One of the things I love about this photo is the focus on the grapes and the color opportunities. I think that a wider aperture would have thrown the background out of focus more and added to the grapes, depending on how you wanted to make use of the background.
    2.) The background is on the verge of being too green for me. By widening the aperture and then enhancing the color contrast a little it may have given a little more brown to the picture.
    3.) Croping in and removing the top part where the limb is. Crop about a quarter of the top and about a third from the left and crop out the tree on the right. I actually like the tree on the right to add color and texture. The problem is that there is only a part of the tree which causes a distraction.
    4.) Post editing. This is my biggest issue with the photo. It is a little flat, and washed out. I think that there could have been more post editing creativity to enhance the vintage feel of this photo and therfore adding to the overall composition. A little dodge and burn there could have added more focus to the grapes.

    Well there is my 4 cents. I am not a expert or master photographer, but I am an expert of what I like in photos. So like I said take what I have to say with a grain of salt. Overall it is a great picture but maybe some added digital darkroom techniques to take this over the top. This picture has a lot of potential.

  • http://www.joevimalraj.webs.com Joe

    Hi, A very nice photo… the comments updated by the persons are very nicely constructed.. Kindly adapt those changes which would make you look more prof in your next shoot… Even me a budding photographer who is aspiring to learn from these comments

    Cheers.. Joe