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It was just over a year ago that you uploaded to the Critique Gallery, Caroline. Welcome back.
I see from your portfolio that you have been enjoying photographing close-ups of branches and blossoms. I mention this because the image immediately before this one in your portfolio has a nice clean background compared to this one. It's always worth glancing behind your chosen subject just in case you can use an alternative angle and achieve a cleaner background. However, I eventually decided that the out-of-focus branches in the top/left serve a purpose - to give a little interest where there might otherwise simply be "dead" space. This became more appropriate after I rotated the image anti-clockwise for 10 degrees for my modification.
My purpose was to get the branch on a stronger diagonal (well done for achieving the diagonal in the first place) so that both ends emanated from a corner. I then cropped, but couldn't get the compositon that I wanted without leaving out one of your buds.
I then removed some of the noise/grain from your background, adjusted contrast and selectively sharpened the branch and buds so that I didn't re-introduce grain to the background. I reduced highlights so that the "flower" had more definition. It's overexposed and has lost some detail in your image, but responded well to processing to get back that detail.
I like your work and attention to detail.
Enjoy the excitement that spring brings, even if it's just in your own garden.
Pamela.
I see from your portfolio that you have been enjoying photographing close-ups of branches and blossoms. I mention this because the image immediately before this one in your portfolio has a nice clean background compared to this one. It's always worth glancing behind your chosen subject just in case you can use an alternative angle and achieve a cleaner background. However, I eventually decided that the out-of-focus branches in the top/left serve a purpose - to give a little interest where there might otherwise simply be "dead" space. This became more appropriate after I rotated the image anti-clockwise for 10 degrees for my modification.
My purpose was to get the branch on a stronger diagonal (well done for achieving the diagonal in the first place) so that both ends emanated from a corner. I then cropped, but couldn't get the compositon that I wanted without leaving out one of your buds.
I then removed some of the noise/grain from your background, adjusted contrast and selectively sharpened the branch and buds so that I didn't re-introduce grain to the background. I reduced highlights so that the "flower" had more definition. It's overexposed and has lost some detail in your image, but responded well to processing to get back that detail.
I like your work and attention to detail.
Enjoy the excitement that spring brings, even if it's just in your own garden.
Pamela.
Hi Caroline,
I have just collected a load of Pussy Willow for a project I am working on, lovely subject, so delicate.
Looks to me like you have just missed focusing on the blossom as it is a little soft. Your focal point seems to be the twig just above the blossom.
The bg is a bit messy and the blossom is over exposed.
An ISO of 640 is going to give you some noise in the image, an answer to that would be to use a lower ISO and around F3.2 to help with the shutter speed, but then you would have to be spot on with your focal point but the bg would be much more OOF.
The other alternative of course is to bring the twig indoors, that's not for everyone though and it looks like you prefer a more natural image.
Pamelas' mod is a big improvement.
I have just collected a load of Pussy Willow for a project I am working on, lovely subject, so delicate.
Looks to me like you have just missed focusing on the blossom as it is a little soft. Your focal point seems to be the twig just above the blossom.
The bg is a bit messy and the blossom is over exposed.
An ISO of 640 is going to give you some noise in the image, an answer to that would be to use a lower ISO and around F3.2 to help with the shutter speed, but then you would have to be spot on with your focal point but the bg would be much more OOF.
The other alternative of course is to bring the twig indoors, that's not for everyone though and it looks like you prefer a more natural image.
Pamelas' mod is a big improvement.
