this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Photo Critique

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Flowers past their prime (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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It’s been several decades since I’ve opened my photography up for critique. I was a photography major back in the day and gave it up as a professional track so i could feed and house myself. I now really only share my photos with three friends. But there isn’t much in the way of actionable feedback - I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This photo was taken on a piece of white paper under a skylight on a cloudy day with my iPhone. I made a few small edits to bring the reds out (such a hard color to get right in digital photography).

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Personally, I'm not too great at artistic shots like this. That being said - this is a great photo. It's refreshing to me and I think that comes with the cleanliness of the background and the harsh flash-like lighting that you've got going on. The detail of all the little florets is striking and I really appreciate that the light was harsh enough to illuminate almost all of the shadows in that area of the photo.

One suggestion I can offer is that my eyes keep wanting to look at the petals that are out of focus. Which I suppose is intentional. But it kind of follows a golden ratio line and that could be why! Just some food for thought but you clearly know what you're doing!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you for all your thoughts! I’m really appreciating hearing how you are perceiving this photo and where your eye is drawn to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thank YOU for your contributions to this awesome little community!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks great, can you explain how you bring out the reds if, as you say, they're such a hard color?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks!

Yeah - so reds are tricky with Digital. They blow out easily (it’s something to do with the sensor being more sensitive to that part of the spectrum). Every picture is a little different, in this case, shooting under a cloudy sky helps to reduce extreme shadows while still achieving a perfectly white background with diffuse lighting. In editing I added back a tiny bit of contrast and depth in the black to get more distinction between the petals and the floret.

I kept the flowers and a few days later under slight brighter sky I desaturated and reduced the contrast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A very instructive set of contents - I never realised that red caused any particular problem. Many thanks for the info and the tips on your workflow - they'll come in useful when I'm out and about spotting red poppies (ie today).

So you took two sets of shots then (... a few days later you said) - no merging or photoshopping of them?

Good to chat, thanks again for the help.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can’t wait to see your red poppies! I’ve never managed to get a good photo of them. It’ll be great to have some inspiration.

No - I guess I didn’t think about merging them or doing any photoshop. I’m a pretty lazy photographer. I’m intrigued though. What would you do? I’d love some inspiration.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

What exactly do you mean by lazy - hard to get up at 4am for that sunrise shot? Personally, it's hard too. Not sure what I'd do differently as its difficult to comment on an approach that someone has already done. I'll post a poppy shot when I get round to processing them. Yes, I'm good at taking shots, but they languish on my hard drive for weeks!