Buzzing around

[Sully]

critique and editing suggestions please ...


P1180305.1 by barvan55, on Flickr

[loose cannon]

Well it's a lovely image of some beautiful flowers but I think it has some compositional issues Barb. The light is ok, subject matter is interesting but the composition has problems. My eyes drift around the image with no main focal point to attract and hold my attention and I find the bee distracting. Either the bee needs to be the focal point or a flower(s) does. If the bee was hovering above the flower it's sitting on then yes, the image could work beautifully.

Anyway, let's forget about the bee for now and focus on composition.

I've taken a heavy hand to the image in photoshop but let me explain what I've done. This is more about showing how to construct an image rather than an attempt to re-edit the image you presented for critique.

The first thing to do is to direct the viewers eye to the bee/flower. I've darken the other flowers, added some blur and a vignette and evicted others. The brightest point in the image is now the main focal point, as it needs to be. We are always attracted to the brightest point in the image.

The flowers at the bottom create an anchor for the image and there's a diagonal formed by the other flowers.

At a stretch one could say there's a triangle of negative space at top right, triangles are wonderful things for composition as are diagonal lines, 'S' curves, leading lines etc etc. Pays to be always on the lookout for geometric shapes as they are wonderful compositional tools. Also odd numbers always look better than even and we have (roughly) three groups of flowers.

The important thing to note is that all of this should be done in the field as much as possible rather than in photoshop as I've done here. (And I've done a rough job of this as it's just to show you what I'm getting at.)
Hope this helps Barb. More of a lesson on composition than an objective critique of the image but you did post in PitP and it's no holds barred territory.

[Sully]

Thanks Mick for your advice and the edit .

This image is straight from the camera and I posted here for some ideas (and critique ) on how to go about editing this photo for 'educational purposes' .
I am mindful of the 'odd number' being optimum but had never thought to have an odd number of 'groups' .... also mindful of lines and curves, but had never extended to geometrical shapes .

I will have a crack at editing tomorrow and see what I can produce .... but as you say 'best done in the field'.

There were several bees in this bush (heaps of flowers but all fairly close together) and I was trying to capture one of the bees 'within a flower' ... shot at 500mm.

I have a thick skin on the other side of the computer, albeit a 'slightly wrinkled one' , so please don't hold back on advice and critique