The Fly in the Bushby
ImablessedComment by tyrkinn: *** Greetings from the Critique Club ***
Hi, these are my thoughts of your "The Fly in the Bush" entry:
Challenge
Since this is a free study, your shot surely fits the challenge. The entry is however not a very original one IMHO, flowers and flies on them are a very common subject on the pages of DPC, and I think it lacks a bit of "wow-factor" to be a really interesting shot.
Composition
In this photo the fly is the main subject, but in my opinion it's too close to the edge. Putting it a bit more to the left and maybe a tiny bit lower would make it a more dominant factor in the frame. It does not help that you took composed the shot differently and cropped a small section out, if you would have composed the shot with the fly in mind you would probably position it differently, the entry looks a bit like it was composed differently when it was taken.
Lighting
Being an outdoor shot (and probably not planned ahead) the light is a bit hard to arrange. Shadows are a bit harsh, although they are not completely black which is good. Some kind of reflector (a white board maybe) or the use of fill-in flash would soften the shadows a bit to make them a smaller factor in the shot (flash can do amazing things in harsh sunlight). Cloudy days are easier to manage (softer shadows)
Camera work
Unfortunately you shot the pic differently first and that causes a few problems. For one thing, you loose resolution when you only use one corner of the captured image. Also, the very edge og the frame is usually a worse spot than spots more towards the middle. Focusing on things on the edge is a challenge as well. Focus seems to be a bit of a trouble with this shot, both the red/pink flowers in the foreground and the fly seems a bit blurry. Unfortunately I cant see your aperture and shutter settings, but a smaller aperture (larger F-number) would probably help to make a larger depth of field and hence the fly and the plants could all be properly focused. (magnetic9999 made a great tutorial about Depth of field:
//www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=1 )
Post-Processing
This photo looks like its pretty much unedited, except for the crop. Small adjustments in photoshop or similar software could have helped a bit. Maybe some sharpening could have helped, and levels would have helped as well (maybe even auto-levels that you can find in most editing software).
Title and Info
The title is descriptive, but could maybe be more creative for my taste. The Photograph information is lacking, it's always a good idea to include at least the Aperture, ISO and Shutter settings that you can find in exif info (can see in most browsing software, probably in programs that came with your camera). It's good that you explained what you did with the cropping, it gives you a better idea how the image was shot.
Overall (my opinion)
I think that if you intended to shoot the fly at the beginning you would have made a better shot. The flowers look better than the fly in this crop, and altough the title indicates the fly is the subject the photo does not show it well enough. Something extraordinary is missing to make the shot rememberable. A different angle might be good, shooting from the right sight making the flowers be the background and the fly in the forground is one idea, then you wouldn't need more DOF, a shallower DOF would maybe be better if the angle was different. It's always a good idea to keep the weeks challenge in mind when shooting, you might see something that really fits the task.
Hope this helps you, keep shooting and submitting.
(please excuse the spelling and grammar, english is not my native language)
Best regards, Tyrkinn
Photographer found comment helpful.