Life in the Outbackby
IssusComment by ltlmschrisss: ** Critique Club **
First Impression
What a pretty color gradient, and your title sparked a debate between my father and I.
Subject
Since I mentioned the debate, I will start with the title. From my father's point of view the title indicated that the livestock(?) on the horizon was supposed to be the main subject of the photo. Since that portion takes up minimal space overall, he understood the sub 5 score. My impression was that the title was meant to encompass the entire scene. To me you were saying this is my life; beautiful skies, luscious grasses, and a wonderful glimpse of nature at its best... at least for part of the year.
Composition
I think your use of a landscape in portrait view hurt you in this case. You would have really needed a strong ground subject to balance the strong cloud presence in the sky. Your use of thirds for the horizon was good though. I do have to agree with abuscemi and my father that the livestock being so small is a distraction overall. Had you been able to get closer to the livestock, they may have provided that stronger ground subject that was needed. If the livestock had just been absent and your point of view been closer to the ground it may have worked better as well. Although one of your comments mentioned lack of interest in the foreground, I personally like the contrast of the dry grass with the nice new green grass. I feel it adds a lot of texture. All that would have been needed was a stronger perspective. There also appear to be some lines in the grasses where there is none of the dry grass. I think had you moved so that these lines either ran parallel to the horizon or vertical would have also added some interest. Vertical would have been better than horizontal as it would have given us some leading lines to follow. For the crop, there is a dirt spot (tire tracks?) that is a little distracting imho.
Lighting and Color
Your lighting is perfect in my opinion. You could not have asked for a more beautiful day. I also love the color. It has a wonderful pop to it from the green in the grass to the darker blue in the sky. My only wish is that you would have let that deeper blue go down to the horizon. Right at the horizon it gets washy and looses detail in the clouds. Add that to the livestock that we can't really see and it makes for a confusing mesh of a focal point compared to the rest of the photo
In relation to the Challenge
Free Studies are always hard to compete in. This photo has a lot of the pop that is required, however I think the title may have confused people. The image that comes to my mind when someone mentions the outback is more about dryness, so I think that people who just think of the stereotype may have been expecting something different from this fresh spring look here. I personally love it when someone showcases a different perspective that what is usually portrayed. So thank you for that. :)
If you have any questions or comments about this critique please feel free to pm me!
Thanks and have a great day!
Chris
Photographer found comment helpful.
