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Earlier in the year, my Mum took me to a nearby lake – Lake Fyans – for the purpose of taking photos. (what a sweet mum! :D) It was a challenge to find compelling, photo worthy subjects, and the lighting wasn’t directly dynamic a good part of the time. But, I tried my best to get some good photos since. . . after all I was there to take pictures. I’m interested in hearing anyone’s critique/suggestions about the following pictures. Thanks so much! 🙂
Pic #1
I thought the dead trees in the middle of the lake would make for a really cool subject, but trying to make it look that way in camera was the challenge. I just didn’t know how to get it to look right, when all the sudden I happened to walk past this tree. There, peeking between the leaves, was some dead trees. Framing – here we come. . . 😉 So, that was my main goal with this one. I wish it was a even frame all the way around, but it’s natural, right?! What could I have done better with this shot in terms of composition, post-processing etc. I was in a quandary with whether or not to put the trees in the middle or on an upper or lower third. I ended up settling with the middle, but I’ve attached the original so you can decide for yourself!Pic #2
The sun was finally starting to set creating golden light – yipee! This bracken fern caught my eye because of the gorgeous back-lighting creating an edge glow. I admit, I took a couple more that a few 😊 pictures of this trying to get it to look right. I like the foreground blur, but couldn’t seem to get rid of the fact that the fern looks like it’s falling over. Any thoughts? Composition, editing etc.Can’t wait to hear your suggestions!
BTW, @jamesstaddon, I know you have a lot of pictures to critique when it comes to the webinars, so if you can only critique one photo that’s no problem. Just pick your favourite or second thoughts maybe your least favourite! 🙂
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Wonderful job! I absolutely love the edited version of the Bracken fern. I really can’t critique it much, as far as I can see, but here are a few composition things that I spotted. The leftmost frond of the fern is slightly out of the frame, but that can be easily fixed in your editing program. On the left side of the photo there’s a small weed(?) coming up to meet the tip of the fern frond. That could be also be fixed in Lightroom or most other editors, though. You could have also removed it before you took the photo. Lastly, the whole fern needs to be down more to the center of the frame.
As to the photo of the lake, the two leaves sticking farther down (and up) into the frame are kinda distracting to me. The out of focus stick on the far left also shouldn’t be there.The Bracken fern photo is beautiful! I can see it being sold as a print somewhere.
You nailed it on the fern photo! The lighting is awesome. Backlighting is always awesome. And the subject is clear and well composed. To keep it from appearing like it’s falling over there might be something we could do with balancing it with empty space in some way. Not sure about this yet. Was the plant standing by itself giving you some room to play with on either side?
The trees in the water are excellent subjects to work with. What was the longest focal length you had with you? The framing is so creative. I can really see this one with a b&w edit.
It’s so fun that your mum was willing to take you out for a little trip just for the sake of photography. God bless her! Enjoy those times….the easier it becomes to go where you want when you want the less enjoyable the experience becomes I think.
Oh, and yes! I’ll see what else comes to mind for these shots on the webinar on the 14th! https://www.lenspiration.com/photo-critique-with-lenspiration-aug-14/ Thanks for your little comment there about not having to critique everything. Thanks. 🙂
Thankyou, @rmadaris, for your comments! I’ve attached a new photo of the fern without it being cropped off and with those distractions removed. Go you for spotting it cropped off on the side. Somehow I missed it – another pair of eyes is definitely helpful!
Thanks for your critique, @jamesstaddon!
Backlighting is always awesome.
Absolutely! It’s my all time favourite type of lighting.
Hmm. . . I’m not sure about if the plant was by itself or not. Judging from some other photos I took, there was more ferns around. I had to get down quite low to remove the distracting lake, mountains and reeds in the background. I found another shot that has more space on the right, but unfortunately it’s accompanied by parts of other ferns. I also tried out a square crop, which might look a bit more balanced – what do you think? I have other photos with the fern on the right, too, with ‘blank space’ on the right, but I think they pretty much all have a part of another fern in it. 🙁 I can upload some others if that’s helpful.
My longest focal length was 200mm – I was using the 70-200mm f/4 lens. Yes, b&w can look amazing! I’m never quite sure how to really make it pop though. Do you have any tips?
Enjoy those times….the easier it becomes to go where you want when you want the less enjoyable the experience becomes I think.
Thanks for the reminder! You’re right, once things like that change some things are never quite the same again.
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@creative-click-photography, thanks! The new version looks even better!!!
I enjoyed looking over your pictures last night, Caitlin. Here’s a link to the webinar replay if you ever want to watch it: https://mailchi.mp/lenspiration/in-case-you-missed-the-live-photo-critique-webinar-1431237
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