Sunflowers

Not sure how I feel about this one. Technically, I think it's ok, but I'm always unsure about my composition abilities.

Let's have it

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I think I'd try to help mother nature a bit by adjusting the petals of the main flower so that they are uniformly flattened to the camera. Or try for another angle on the left flower. It also seems a bit too busy to me and not a strong enough subject.

Qbx wrote in post #16767454
I think I'd try to help mother nature a bit by adjusting the petals of the main flower so that they are uniformly flattened to the camera. Or try for another angle on the left flower. It also seems a bit too busy to me and not a strong enough subject.

Thanks, good point about straightening out the petals. Yeah the composition seems flat to me, more like a scientific photo if you opened an encyclopedia and turned to the sunflowers page.

This looks to me like the crop is halfway to somewhere. It's either a photo of one flower, or it's a photo of three flowers. If it were me, I'd zoom out a bit, and include the top of the third flower and a little breathing room. That would also help the subject become stronger by allowing some contrast outside of the yellow mass.

I like the look of the flower without its petals being perfect. Why take the same picture that you can look up in an encyclopedia? It's already been done.

Interesting. I always tend to "get closer" when composing because the whole "fill the frame" thing is beating me over the head. I probably avoided getting further away here because I was getting rid of distracting background elements. Ugh, I always feel like there's just too darn much to think about when composing. Exposure and sharpness is easy, composition is my Everest...

I think the biggest problem with the photo isn't the composition (I think it's fine there), but it's the lighting of the flowers. The focus is on the right flower, but my eyes are constantly drawn to the one on the left since it's probably 2/3+ higher in exposure. But then, when my eyes get there, it wanders around cause the flower on the left is slightly out of focus. I'd burn the flower on the left a bit to bring it down.

hiketheplanet wrote in post #16767563
Interesting. I always tend to "get closer" when composing because the whole "fill the frame" thing is beating me over the head. I probably avoided getting further away here because I was getting rid of distracting background elements. Ugh, I always feel like there's just too darn much to think about when composing. Exposure and sharpness is easy, composition is my Everest...

Composition is the thing I study the most, and it's the thing I feel like I know the least. I know the "rules," and have read plenty on the subject, but applying that knowledge when there's a camera stuck to my face is endlessly difficult.

As per HiepBuiPhotography's suggestion, some dodge & burn (i am completely lost in PP btw, hopefully it doesn't look too cooked)

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I think it looks much better now but since that highlight spot is gone, it seems a little underexposed now. Maybe bump it up 1/3 or 2/3 stops?