Scooter (Detail Study)by
SharQComment by sylandrix: Greetings from the Critique Club!...
COMPOSITION... What you did manage to do well is choose an interesting and unique angle from which to compose your subject. Not to say no one has ever shot a motorcycle like this before, but the angle you chose accentuates the motorcycles natural curves, and the viewer can easily see that.
What I think was miss, foremost, was your choice of location... the motorcycle does get lost between the trees and the sky... the sky is so white it bleeds into the motorcycle's highlights, and the foliage is sharp and clear, competing for my attention, especially with a lamp post sticking out of the seat :)
Before clicking the shutter, make sure you stop, and check the periphery of the viewfinder, and as silly as it sounds, not focus on the subject... check to see if there can be any extraneous objects that can detract the viewer from the focal point of the image. Its very easy to miss this since our brain is constantly filtering unimportant things out of our own vision..
Was there an angle that would allow the foliage to take up the entire frame? A location with a large solid color, such as a brick wall, to shoot against... you're basically looking for some background that makes your cycle stand out and arrest the viewer's attention.
TECHNIQUE... Metal is one of the hardest surfaces to shoot, and all things considered, you did a good job. The biggest problem with metal is the fact that it is so reflective, the photographer usually winds up in the picture... It happened in your photo but fortunately its very small... The two techniques that photographers use to avoid their reflections is by either...
creating an environment around the metal object, with fabric, paper, whatnot,,, and then a hole is cut for the camera lens to fit through... definitely something hard to do with large objects such as motorcycles or
fitting the photographer's reflection in an area of the object that is not recognizable in the final object, such as a sharp curve in the surface, so that the reflection is so distorted that the photographer and his equipment is not recognizable anymore...
OVERALL... A decent attempt which shows you have an eye for interesting angles... I hope my critique has given you some ideas to make your next shots even better :)
MILESTONES... Most likely the longest critique I've ever written :)
Photographer found comment helpful.
