Hey, what do you think of this picture?

So, I'm sure everyone is sick of people complaining about how poorly their picture did in a challenge so if you're particularly sick of the topic, feel free to pass this post by.

Basically, I'm looking for people's opinion on the following photo:

http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Entry.aspx?ID=599938

There aren't enough of those "Why for goodness sake..." challenges so I figured I just ask.

You can speak to it either in context with the "Fruits" challenge or just about the photo on its own. Whatever you have to say, really, is interesting to me. It can range from "this picture sucks" to "I'm allergic to blackberries and lens caps so I low graded this photo", anything goes, though constructive comments will be especially appreciated.

I love this picture as I put a lot of work into it and ended up with the composition I was looking for - colorful and original (or if not original, unusual). But clearly others didn't like it, so I would like to learn what people prefer (photography is just a hobby for me and I mostly do it for myself, but it would be nice to make pictures that I AND others appreciate).

As to the challenge itself, there're some good pictures but also some that I found dull (colorwise and compositionwise), unimaginative and, frankly, boring (some definite snapshots). This is a matter of taste though so I have no problems with the voters. When entering this challenge, I was specifically trying to avoid the cliche (in my opinion) photos of collection of fruits (be it on a table or in a basket) with a black negative space around it. In this small participation challenge alone there were 20-25% using this technique... The pictures are nice, yes, but originality isn't there... Anyway, forget the other pictures, I guess, just let me know what you think of this one.

If you feel compelled to just call me a sore loser etc, it's fine. But... I've placed far worse in many challenges so I had plenty of opportunities to b!tch and moan, if that's what I were looking for.

Thanks in advance for spending some time helping me out!

In my opinion, this challenge is a good challenge (quality wise), with plenty of very good pictures.

In reference to yours -and according to me- it is not a bad picture, good color and contrast, but it is unbalanced. Too much weight on the right side, and the yellow background tries to eat the blurred blackberries. I would give it 2.0.

CG33 said:

In reference to yours -and according to me- it is not a bad picture, good color and contrast, but it is unbalanced. Too much weight on the right side, and the yellow background tries to eat the blurred blackberries.

Click to expand...

Thank you, something I'll definitely pay attention to in the future.

I gave you 3 stars just because of the effect you were trying to achieve.

But unfortunately you weren't my winner, mainly because the fruit was 1. Out of focus 2. Over exposed due to flash that made it look like a snapshot. 3. the yellow background was questionable, did u have to use a mask or did you do PP on it?

4. the image is askew (or slanted) its not that bad, however the cover does take away "quality" on the image. So again it fell back to a snapshot effect, due to unpreparation.

I do like the effect you achieved. it was the abovementioned items that made it unfavorable for me. Well 3 star is already high from my voting pattern.

Hope this helps.

Norberto

Your in focus fruit is out of focus . . .

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Take a look at my album . . . http://www.F1Album.com

All points well taken, thank you for your detailed response!

I was trying to use manual focus on the blackberry but I guess I'll stick to auto

The yellow background is not pp; the entire back ground is fruit - banana, apple, pear and grapefruit You're right, it is a bit too yellow I suppose. I didn't originally intend to crop it like this but had to due to the requested format.

The slant was also not intended originally but the right side was a bit overblown so I had to try to limit the amount of it in the picture whilst hoping the slant could pass as "artistic".

Thanks again for your reply.

Gotcha, thank you. I'll stick with autofocus in the future.

I could be totally off here but...

I checked the rules and no limitations on post processing.

It looks like you took a photo of a blackberry (yum!) on a lid of some sort. Perhaps there was a yellow (OOF) background. Then it looks like you cloned in some OOF berries of some sort in the background. I say this because inspection makes it appear one of the spheres (near the middle) is on the lid but not in a way that looks normal. They look pasted in and kind of unnatural.

If this is so--that you created them--it wasn't prohibited so there is no problem there. I'm just not sure I like the whole thing together.

For my part, I tend to stay away from veggie and fruit challenges because too many of the one's I have entered sport winners who have submitted "cute" photos instead of the more traditional shots (that I appreciate more).

I probably would have given yours a 2.0. Maybe higher.

(but I have quit voting and entering until DPR does something about the whole challenge business here).
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A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life".

(...from the generation that still uses capital letters and punctuation...)

Thanks for your response! I must admit, I certainly didn't think that pasted together was going to be one of the observations, but I found your viewpoint interesting

When I was shooting for this challenge (for about an hour or so) armed with blackberries, banana, pear, apple and a grapefruit, and a flashlight, I was trying to create something unique but quickly found out that throwing all these fruits together just looked silly. So after unsuccessfully trying to make it look like blackberries were riding the banana, I stopped on this final composition which is this:

It's a fairly cropped shot of a single blackberry on a lens cap, the background is the aforementioned fruits (which were placed about 1-1.5 feet back of the blackberry) that were nicely (imo) blurred with a shallow DOF. The orbs that you're seeing are the remaining blackberries which were briefly lit up with a flashlight from the side. I guess this may have created an unrealistic/pasted together looking affect but, unlike many of my shots, this one had minimal PP

Thanks again for your input. I do agree that there were a couple cute looking subjects / blend photos (i.e. the orange pealed to look like a man carrying it)

LOL...

I tend to use a flashlight with a lot of my still shots, too. Of course, I can see where you spent your time--shot after shot (after shot).

I use a Bolt, I think for my bigger light and a small penlight (both LCD). I got both of them as recommended at a website of a class I took online at Kelby's.

Interesting image you got with those OOF berries in the back. They really looked pasted/cloned to me. LOL
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A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life".

(...from the generation that still uses capital letters and punctuation...)

For me the image is hard to read - what is the yellow? What is the thingy the blackberry is on? This distracts me and keeps me from "buying in" to the image. Also the berry placement right on the edge of the frame is poor composition. I do like the out of fucus berries in the background.

mirrorrorrim said:

For me the image is hard to read - what is the yellow? What is the thingy the blackberry is on? This distracts me and keeps me from "buying in" to the image. Also the berry placement right on the edge of the frame is poor composition. I do like the out of fucus berries in the background.

Click to expand...

The yellow is a banana and the thingy is the lens cap... I'm wondering, if knowing what it was, say if I put in the description, would make you feel different about the photo? Though, I think (generally) a photo should speak for itself and didn't think these would matter maybe I'll try to keep it simpler. I can see your point about the placement of the berry. Not that it makes it better or anything, but the reason it's where it is is because the right side of the frame got a bit overblown so I had to crop it this way. Thanks again for your input.

I found the background to be Berry distracting with the strong yellow colour and the almost to perfectly round berries. The berries almost looked like they where cloned onto the picture. The foreground blackberry was out of focus and the lighting to harsh.

The thing that I really didn't like was the object you placed the berry on, it had no reason to be in the picture and added more distraction to the picture. Remember less is more.

eddiegforce said:

I found the background to be Berry distracting

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Lol, good one

Yeah, you're not the first one who suggested that they appear cloned, I'm a bit puzzled as to how to avoid that / why is it bad if they're not actually cloned (although if the viewer perceives it as cloned, I guess it's not good).

Honestly, the object thing was simply there to physically raise the berry as the camera was on the same table as the subject(s) and the main berry's placement wasn't as good without it in relation to background berries... After having typed this, I realize how silly it sounds. I'll just try to avoid extra crap in my frames in the future.

The lighting is something I'll have to consider in the future though, thanks for the advise!

:chuckling:

Nice play on words.

But in seriousness, glad you were open to the comments.

As to the cloning comment(s), I didn't really care (as I tried to point out). What I noticed was what seemed to be a bad cloning job...as if the "blurry berries" weren't integrated enough into the photo. It looks like they were pasted/cloned onto the yellow background (bananas). I have no explanaiton for why, for example, the sides of the berries (on the left) appear to have been cut off. If those berries were there and in the background, wouldn't the complete round object be there (although OOF) in each case of a berry? And look at the one resting on the camera lid...it curves inward. It looks out of place. Finally, though I'm not an expert in bokeh, etc., but it looks like the berries in the background are transparent and overlaid on each other...the little spheres can be seen trhough (or something).

So, all in all, I didn't care if you added them there or there were in the original shot--it gives the appearance of a bad pasting/cloning job. (sorry).

tarakanchik said:

eddiegforce said:

I found the background to be Berry distracting

Click to expand...

Lol, good one

Yeah, you're not the first one who suggested that they appear cloned, I'm a bit puzzled as to how to avoid that / why is it bad if they're not actually cloned (although if the viewer perceives it as cloned, I guess it's not good).

Honestly, the object thing was simply there to physically raise the berry as the camera was on the same table as the subject(s) and the main berry's placement wasn't as good without it in relation to background berries... After having typed this, I realize how silly it sounds. I'll just try to avoid extra crap in my frames in the future.

The lighting is something I'll have to consider in the future though, thanks for the advise!

Click to expand...

--

A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life".

(...from the generation that still uses capital letters and punctuation...)

Bizarre is all I can say as there were no cloning of the berries done to any degree :\ I am perplexed a little too as the half-assed pasted together look is less than desirable. The only thing I can think of is that the banana part got more exposed than the berries, be it due to the fact that it's lighter or maybe when I shined the light on it, I didn't do it evenly/more on the banana than the berries. When one piece of the photo is much more exposed, it kinda takes over anything adjacent and could potentially cut off some of the orbs... The second best explanation I've got is that it's work of aliens (j/k).

Aliens!

Well, we were just trying to figure out what may have hampered your image's position. At this point, we're just guessing.

I see you have done OK in some events.
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A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including my life".

(...from the generation that still uses capital letters and punctuation...)

I've been average overall but looking to improve! Definitely got some good pointers here so let's hope it translates into some good finishes

I have no problem with blur, lack of sharp focus, and general fuzziness to make interesting photographs; but on the rare occasion I entered such a photo in a challenge here it was punished severely by the "Hey, your main subject's not sharp!" voters.

In the case of your photograph, it simply leaves me wondering what you are trying to show me, as I don't see anything interesting or harmonious or discordant or anything else in the composition of the elements in the image. What is it about the scene that made you look at it and take a photograph in the first place: the colors, the textures, the shapes, the juxtaposition of certain things? None of that communicates itself to me. Of course, if it is perfect in your eyes and exactly what you were trying to do, then we just have different tastes and opinions and that's as it should be; but to me it looks like a bunch of techniques applied to no particular purpose...

Joe

Thanks Joe. I'm not really big "techniques" guy per se. I kinda just take a picture and hope for the best. I like colors, and interesting backgrounds, which in this case were created by various fruits. That's basically it, no other special message or anything opened for interpretation. Yeah, a taste is a tricky thing, as such, I personally don't care for a majority of photos in that challenge. They just lack originality and colorfulness that I would expect in a fruit challenge. A bunch of fruit in a basket without a background doesn't really do it for me. I suppose regardless of the quality of a photo, it can't appeal to everyone's taste.