Panel comments on photo – Lelie

We have received our first photo submitted by a 5 star member for comments on the photo.  The comments indicate that judging is subjective and different people look differently at a photo. I trust that you like this feed back and would make use of this opportunity to send us a similar request on one of the photos that you have entered.  You can click on the photos in this article to see the original photo.

The photo to the right is the photo as entered in the February competition.  Please add your comments to this article.

I always like to look at the work of an expert in the field and came across the work of Clive Nichols.  Select his web link or go straight to the flower pictures.

Ather web links that I personally like were 41 Delicious flower photos or How to photograph flowers.  Go and look on these web sites to get fresh ideas.

Panel member 1

Ek sou graag of meer van die wit blom of baie minder wou sien. Tans kompeteer die rooi en wit vir my aandag. In my opinie sou dit n baie sterker foto gewees het, indien die fotograaf op die stuifmeeldrade gekonsentreer het, sonder die wit blom

Panel member 2

I personally do not see anything wrong with this image, it is pin sharp right through, the post processing has been executed extremely well.   Where it should be sharp it is sharp, exposure is excellent, composition perhaps could have been slightly improved, perhaps just having part of the petals coming in from the left pulled the image down slightly..  It is not easy to to get an image like this pin sharp right through.  I could not have post processed it any better.

Panel Member 3

1. The author captured the flower well.
2. Technically there is nothing wrong with the picture.
3. I don’t think the subject matter in the photo is strong enough.I would have scored this a 3 if I was the judge.
4. It might help to look at other similar photos on the internet.  Click here

Panel Member 4

1. The simplicity of this photo is striking with the diagonal lines are a strong component of the photo.
2. The photo is balanced and your choice of crop is good.  The crop helps to frame the photo.
3. The dark background works well in this case and contributes to emphasize the focus point.
4. Technically you have unfortunately a number of challenges.
   1. Once the raw photo is cropped, you are already on or below the competition format size of 1080 high.
   2. As this is almost a macro photo, it is critical that it is pin sharp on your focus point.  You could try to vary the depth of field to find when the eye is drawn to the focus point.
   3. In your photo, there is some room for improvement in gaining sharpness and improving the contrast.  I have attached the same photo, processed slightly differently that shows a different emphasize on the photo and taking some of the suggestions into account.
5. Other ideas to try:
   1. By using a polarising filter one can possible reduce the shiny reflections.
   2. A reflector on the top or right hand side can be tried to see if you can balance the light with a fill light from the side
6. As flowers are regularly photographed and entered into competition, it is very difficult to compete on a 5* level in this topic and to make your photo stand out from the rest.  It must  therefore be a powerful photo that is technically exceptional on this level to get a high award.