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criticize my photography

By clover kicker (Sun Aug 19, 2007 at 10:02:24 PM EST) (all tags)

Actually, criticize my composition.

Also, I hope it's summer the next time someone makes animals the PFC topic.

Although the hummingbird stands out better against the grass in this shot...

He's in better focus in this shot, and there's the orange flowers as well as the purple...

Which is better?

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criticize my photography | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Is this really hidden by sasquatchan (2.00 / 0) #1 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 09:54:09 AM EST

or lost, if I can put a comment in there ?

Only suggestions, and probably not possible with the lens used, would be to drop the background out of focus (depth/field aperture setting). The green overwhelms, but you can't help that, so make it all blurry and that might make the bird and flower really stand out in the composition ?

: camera by clover kicker (2.00 / 0) #2 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 10:05:53 AM EST

It's a point'n'shoot consumer autofocus thing, Canon a540.
Good thing too, manually focusing on a hummingbird flitting around is well beyond my skillz. He only stayed still for 2-3 seconds and then was off to the next flower.
A little Gimping could provide some blur, hmm...
I might also try Gimping the background greens a bit paler.

[ Parent ]

Crop! by ObviousTroll (2.00 / 0) #3 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 10:47:00 AM EST

My preference is to always crop as close to the main subject as possible, to focus on what's important.

Also, I'd mess with p-shop to see if I could boost the contrast between the bird and the background.

--
Has anybody seen my clue? I know I had it when I came in here.

hmm by clover kicker (2.00 / 0) #7 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 03:48:38 PM EST

I tried some level adjustments, but the green bird is very close to the color of the foliage, which I suppose only makes sense.

I've heard that cropping advice before, maybe it's time to troll the 10 bazillion photography sites and read some more tutorials.

[ Parent ]

: The basic rule of thumb is called by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #8 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 04:02:19 PM EST

"The rule of thirds" - mentally divide the frame into a tic-tac-toe board. The primary subject should be on or near one of the intersections, with the face closer to the middle. The primary subject should occupy, roughly, between half and two thirds of the frame.
Obviously, this is just a general rule, but the idea is to help focus the viewer's eye on what you think is important and, obviously, you should ignore it if it doesn't make your pictures look better.

--
Has anybody seen my clue? I know I had it when I came in here.
[ Parent ]

2nd photo by muchagecko (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 10:51:23 AM EST

is pretty friggin' swell.

The composition is great and you can't go wrong with my 3 favorite colors.

Awesome pics. Thanks.

"It means more if you have to earn it, even if it's by doing something as simple as eating a meal." Kellnerin

Ill-informed composition critique by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #5 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 10:52:04 AM EST

I like the composition of the bottom one: you've got a nice dramatic diagonal in the body of the bird.

You're chopping some of the flowers in half with the framing though: might be a bit neater to trim it to get whole flowers in.

The top one seems a bit unexciting. I feel at the top you should either have more grass or less grass: it's not enough to really be a background, but doesn't really add much. Also the bird/flower focal point seems almost-but-not-quite centered, which feels a bit wrong. Might be better to go for the old rule of thirds and have it 2/3 of the way across one or both axes, or else centre it completely.
--
"Life is too short to be interested in everything, but it is good to be interested in as many things as are necessary to fill our days."-Bertrand Russell

: the cropping/framing is eccentric by clover kicker (2.00 / 0) #6 Mon Aug 20, 2007 at 03:39:01 PM EST

to fit within the Husi 250K upload limit.
Crop, oops, too big, crop again, damnit still 50K too big, shave a little here, still too big...
The first one has a lot of grass because I was trying to keep the bird roughly centered, the 2/3 thing might look better.

[ Parent ]

criticize my photography | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

-	first hummingbird photo	0%
-	second hummingbird photo	85%
-	putting gas in my Hummer (tm)	0%
-	receiving big sloppy hummers	14%


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