Looking for a bit of feedback

 

This is one of the first pictures I took with my new camera (Kodak PixPro AZ528). What say you? Too dark? Too bright?

First of all Amanda, I'm not a professional and others here are undoubtedly more qualified than I to give a critique or provide suggestions. In any case be it critique, suggestion, or whatever. It's basically somebody's opinion. You tell me how many people there are in the world, and I'll tell you how many opinions there are in the world. That said, I think you've pretty much got a perfectly ok image here. At least as it shows up on my screen. I'm guessing (based on the appearance of the light reflections on the leaves that it was coming from the left. Now! As I said, it's perfectly ok as it shows up on my screen. Printed out as say an 8x10, the lighter green leaves might appear a little washed out. Not much mind you. But just a little. Likewise, the bright spots on those as well as the darker ones might be a little on the glary side. Can it be corrected? Probably. Is it worth it? Depends on what you're using the image for.

The green leaves draw the main interest with the out-of-focus berries coming a poor second. Which was the main interest to you, the leaves, the berries or just the whole scene? If the berries were more prominent and in sharper focus, I think the pic would have more "life", even with plenty of leaves still included in the frame.

 

The dark bottom right corner is devoid of any green leaves and so looks a bit empty. Perhaps shooting the scene from a different position so as to fill the whole frame with brightly lit foliage would be of benefit from a compositional perspective.

 

Exposure wise, and from my experience photographing plants, flowers etc, the bright or highlighted objects need to be the correct exposure, while not worrying too much about the darker objects. Which means of course, adjusting your camera exposure settings for the brightly sunlit objects.

Depending on what you want to DO with the image, it ranges from very nice to unobjectionable.

 

For a background (think text or card) it would work well. As a stand-alone picture in an exhibit or club contest there could be improvements in focus, exposure, and such like, that would please the go-by-the-rules people.

I think that you're a beginner and won't necessarily understand what I suggest, but this (subjecting yourself to critique) is how you learn and improve. Congrats on moving forward.

 

I think that your Depth of Field (DOF) is way too shallow, with only the leaves in focus, when there are tantalizing red berries that just sit there out of focus (OOF). I have no idea if your camera will allow it, but you gain DOF by "stopping down" (making smaller) the aperture. You probably needed f/8 here, or maybe even f/11.

 

You exposure is about right, but you need to use some software to pull up the Shadows and pull down the highlights. (Even an iPhone allows this, in the "Edit" function).

 

Finally, if it had enough DOF, I'd crop it square, with the bulk of the berries toward the right of the frame.

there could be improvements in focus, exposure, and such like, that would please the go-by-the-rules people.

Improvements to focus, exposure, and "such like" aren't necessarily done to please so-called "go-by-the-rules people." They might be something a photographer learns to do and which might help better express photographically what they have in mind, what they saw, or what they'd like the photo to be. One can, of course, be a slave to rules, which can be limiting. But learning a basic facility with exposure and focus isn't really going by the rules as much as it is learning the craft of photography, to then be used expressively, creatively, or documentarily.

aren't necessarily done to please so-called "go-by-the-rules people."

Nor did I mean to imply that the rules weren't often useful.

 

But in experience in my own photography collective, local judges are often particularly fond of the(ir) "rules" to a fault.

 

As I've often said, even "focus" and "exposure" are variables, not constants.

Of course you have to learn the craft -- that's one reason formal training is often so helpful, especially for beginners

Edited May 14, 2021 by JDMvW

Hi Amanda, thanks for sharing this 'for critique' photo! I usually learn at least as you from my feedback. Your photo has a wide 'tonal range' (dark in some places and very bright in others). In general, this makes for an interesting photo! But digital cameras have a more limited 'tonal range' than the human thimgman eye In general, digital cameras try to find a' neutral grey' and base their shadows and highlights on this.In your (wide tonal range) photo, the