Welcome to the premiere of the weekly photo critique at Photography 24/7.
Carolyn Fletcher from Eufaula, Oklahoma in the US was quick off the mark submitting this truly beautiful image which she has entitled “Fishing in Paradise”. Thank you very much to Carolyn for offering up her image for the weekly photo critique.
I have been looking at this image on and off for a few days now, and every time I return to it, the first thing that strikes me are the absolutely amazing colours Carolyn has captured here.
It looks like peak fall colour and the only way to get images like this is of course by being there. So good on Carolyn (as they say here in Australia) for getting out there and capturing such a beautiful picture.
Original image by Carolyn Fletcher
The colours are a definite WOW factor in this image. They are so captivating and they are a contributing factor to me wanting to spend more than just the average time looking at this image. I take pleasure in exploring all the different colours and tones in the image.
Eye Movement and Composition
It’s only after a little while (which in reality is probably less than a split second) that I discover the fisherman in his boat. My eyes first go to the beautiful burnt orange colour – and probably more so to the burnt orange colour on the right hand side of the image rather than on the left as this is one of the highest contrast areas in the picture. It’s also in this area that some of the brightest pixel values (highlights) can be found on the bright tree trunks to the right in the picture.
My eyes then continue down to the reflection of this area and then I see the boat and the fishman.
Eye movement
I have tried to illustrate the way my eyes move through image above. As you can see the path almost forms a spiral ending up at one of the main subjects in the image.
In the illustration above part of the path is a dotted line as after viewing the image multiple times, sometimes me eyes start in the area on the left (there is a fairly high contrast area at the bottom of the bright tree trunks on the left where they meet the shoreline) and other times my eyes latch straight on the burnt orange and bright areas in the the right.
In either case Carolyn has succeeded – whether intentional or not – to guide my eyes through the image and down to one of the main subjects and to me this really makes the composition work.
In her comments accompanying the image, Carolyn wrote to me:
“I know this is against the ‘rules’ with the subject being in the center. I just couldn’t bring myself to eliminate anything.”
I say stuff the rules here, because it works!
The way I interpret this image the colour (paradise) is the main subject (which is where my eyes go first) and the other main subject (fishing) is the man in his boat (which is where my eyes go next). Success! It really doesn’t have to me more complicated than that.
I absolutely enjoy how I’m taken for a little discovery ride in this image. To me, in terms of composition, it doesn’t feel static at all which can sometimes be the case with very centered (bulls eye) subjects.
And while we are on the topic of composition more often than not with reflection images like this, it works well to have the horizon line running through the middle of the image as it pretty much does here.
Technical Aspect
Technically this image appears to be well executed overall. However I should add that I have sized down the images shown here from the original submission and I have used Bicubic Sharper when down sizing the image in the Image Size dialogue box in Photoshop CS4.
When I view Carolyn’s original image (you can click the thumbnail at the very top to view the original in full size) it appears as if there is a slight degree of softness to the image overall.
This may very well be intentional on Carolyn’s part in an effort to create the feeling of “Fishing in Paradise”. But it could also be a result of the focus being off just a little bit or perhaps a little bit of camera shake (which can also occur on a tripod). The softness also appears in the colours of trees in the background which gives an almost dreamy look which is really quite nice.
Improvements
When I think about ways I can perhaps improve this image aesthetically, the first thing that comes to my mind is the colour of the boat.
But really I’m in two minds about the colour of the boat. Part of me feels it is too colourful and overpowering, and another part feels that the bold colour of the boat separates it from the landscape as the man-made object it is.
So if this was my image I would consider changing the colour of the boat and see what I would like the best, so this is one of the suggestions I have made in the After example below.
In other suggestions to post-processing improvements a little bit of ‘gardening’ and local contrast adjustments. Here is my short-list of post-processing suggestions which I have applied in the After example below:
1. Remove colour from boat
2. Increase local contrast of the man in the boat
3. Clone out the dark corner in the top right
4. A little bit of ‘gardening’ along the right edge, bottom right corner and left bottom part
5. Clone out high contrast area in the background and reflection
6. Tone down brighter spot in the top middle part of the image
These are all quite minor changes in effort to just ‘tidy up’ the image a little bit (note that all adjustments were made with more attention to speed than quality to illustrate the suggestions). One could probably go a little bit further with the post-processing work depending on personal taste and indeed depending on whether you’re open to changing the contents of the image. Some of the changes mentioned above could also have been accomplished through some minor cropping.
Suggestions to improvements
After post-processing
The overhanging leafless branches in the foreground might be a small distraction and in an ideal world I would probably wish they weren’t there, but on the other hand they don’t bother me too much either. They are very much part of the scene and don’t feel too intruding as they are kind of spread out across the top of the image.
Overall I think Carolyn has come away with a really beautiful image of a lovely subject. Some might argue that this type of image can be a little bit cliche, but as for me, I never tire looking at scenes like this.
Once again a big thank you to Carolyn Fletcher for submitting this image for the premiere of the weekly photo critique.
If you’re interested in submitting one of your images for the critique, you can find out more details on the Photo Critiques page.
Loading ...
Thu, Nov 19, 2009
Photo Critiques