Chasing Lavender
by Edwardho94

Comment by Bear_Music:
Greetings From Critique Club

There are two ways to approach this image critically: as a composition, and based on how you dealt with the HDR requirement of the challenge.

Speaking compositionally, The image is startlingly static considering how much convergence is used, because convergence is usually very dynamic. If you hold your thumb up over the feet, you'll notice the image becomes much more dynamic. Not the image you wanted to make, obviously, but nevertheless a more dynamic one. And in DPC, "dynamic" is worth points. The feet, apparently, anchor the image in a rather mundane way. Which may be your point, of course.

Looking at it as an HDRI image, it's a little awkward. There's a huge disconnect between the rendering of the sky and the rendering of the field, so much that they look like they belong to two different images. And, as a niggling point, the tallest sunflower on the left is showing total shadow, whilst none of the others do, so that's an inconsistency that works against the whole. In general, it's a bit harsh and crunchy of an image.

I did *like* the image, it made me smile, but in the end it finished smack in the middle of the field, which is where I'd have expected it to end up.

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by wbanning:
Critique Club Comment:

Hi Edward and welcome!

Initial Impression: Like several commenters, I initially reacted to the tilted horizon. But, as I look at it more carefully, I'm wondering if your point of view includes a rolling, gentle slope. Hard to tell, but even if it is, the first reaction is likely to see a tilted horizon. Beyond that aspect (and the close to center placement of the horizon), there's a lot interesting stuff going on here. It caught my eye and kept me looking.

Color: You've definitely got some excellent purple going for you! I've never seen a lavender field up close, but I think there are a few around where I live - I'm going to be looking for sure. I find the intense saturation of the flowers and the orange-brown material between the rows - is it gravel, rock, or some kind of mulch? - to be a bit distracting. The color of the sky seems a bit incongruous to the foreground, too; likely an artifact of the HDR process. I suspect the clouds were more grey than the blue cast you show here.

Composition: I've already mentioned the ambiguity of the horizon line (tilted or rolling hill?) and the overall centering of the horizon in the frame. When I set those two questions aside, I see good design in the composition - I'm particularly drawn to the straight vertical line on the left and the way it draws my attention to the clouds on that side of the image. I find myself focusing my attention on the left side - the right side seems to almost fade to periphery. I think this is actually an effectively balanced composition.

Technical details: I'm not a fan of this style of HDR processing. As amazing as the technical effect of merging multiple exposures can be, it doesn't always produce an overall pleasing effect when done with too little subtlety. Finally, your selection of f/2.8 limits the depth of field enough to create a distracting blur in the extreme foreground and a sense that there's really very little that sharp throughout. - this lack of sharpness may be amplified by the merging of multiple exposures, too - especially outdoors when even slight breeze can be enough to move the lavender between shots.

Overall: Despite all the specific suggestions, I do find this to be an attractive image. I scored it as a 6 during voting. For me that means it caught my attention in a good way. There's a lot to like. Nice work.

BTW... Since this is apparently only your second entry here, let me point you to this thread in the forums. Your score of 5.9xxx qualifies you to be a recipient of the world's tiniest violin award - for images that are "Almost-But-Not-Six" At this rate your break the 6+ threshold no time!

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by jgirl57:
pretty photo really like the dof

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by Cory:
A tighter crop with a more level horizon would have put this into the 'WOW' category.

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by DianaB:
Not keen on the tilted and centered horizon. Think that a different crop so that more purple foreground was shown and less sky would have improved this photo.

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Could have been nice had the horizon been straight and not bisecting the photo. At least it's real purple and not colored in post.

Chasing Lavender
by Edwardho94

Comment by slickchik:
way too dark on my screen and my screen is calibrated properly :) beautiful sky!

Chasing Lavender
by Edwardho94

Comment by Robski:
like the idea and composition, feels a bit over done bit too much contrast ?

Revealing Purple within Nature
by Edwardho94

Comment by overboard:
This is beautiful. I suspect it will suffer from the crooked horizon.

Chasing Lavender
by Edwardho94

Comment by illini75:
Nice pov