White Wild Water Lily

Someone is bound to dismiss your composition and confirm your doubts, but I honestly think it shows daring, and I think it works very well, mostly because the large area lower right has detail under the water, so there is interest there, something to look at besides a flat grey mass. So, as far as I can tell your grey values look fine. Photoshop, for all its wonders has this one flaw: There is too much you can do. That makes knowing when to stop a key ingredient towards an effective image. Here, you've done well.

 

Hello, Margaret. I happen to follow Doug's work and comments quite closely, and when I saw that he mentionned about good tones about a picture, as well as "daring" composition, I thought it would be worth seeing, and here comes your shot on the monitor...

So, I'll take the opportunity to prove you wrong when you mentionned my rating of a certain sunset of yours at 5 / 5 was a revenge rating. Fact is, I just found that particular shot very weak, and I find the shot above very strong. So, I hope this sets things straight.

Why do I like this ? First, because of the very original 2 corners composition which pulls this image out of the ordinary entirely.

Second, because the tones are indeed great - maybe the flower is just a tad too bright, but nothing serious...

Composition ? Almost perfect. I can't think of any smarter way to place flower and reflection in the frame - this is just perfect to me. What I might want to suggest, though, is a little crop on the right side, just enough to leave us with a perfect square. I feel that we wouldn't loose much by cropping, and that the occupation of the 2 left corners will be even stronger in a perfectly geometrical format.

Last thing: "Have added contrast before changing to greyscale" is what I read in your comments... This caused a surprise to me. Why adjust contrast BEFORE rather than AFTER going to grey-scale mode ? Reversing this order would allow you to judge what you'll get exactly in Black & White. It seems more logical to me to see what you will get... and anything red in color for example will turn more contrasted in black and white, etc. That could be the reason why the flower here went a bit on the bright side...

I hope this helps you to remember that on the internet, we all don't know each other, and therefore, we can all be pretty wrong in our assumptions about people. Best is therefore not to assume too much. Best regards.

Good dynamic range. Has punch. Composition is daring, and may work for some. Pixilization hurts it (around pedals?). Will it print 11x17? If so, see what it looks like (for the learning). If it still looks good to you, then you have got a keeper, imo.

You know me...I'm about 5 chapters behind you when it come to understanding and utilizing my OWN PSP 7.0. And free time is tight! So,some of the areas you are presently delving into are still a few months away for me. I rate viscerally,as you are well aware...triangulation and geometric symmetry only play a role on the subconscious level. I'm still usually in the ballpark,though. This photo is all I could ever hope to accomplish in a waterlily shot...what a unique perspective! Much more energizing in black and white.

Very good Maggie!!! I really like it.

I was just slightly distracted by some white "streaks" (sort of amplified hairs in a slide scanner) on the water reflection, but perhaps these are some rocks or stuff from seen through into the water bottom. Very nice low-key grays of reflection greatly give a punch to the Lily. Congratulations and regards,

I don't scan. My digital camera's CCD chip produces the pictures in Jpeg and feeds directly into my pc with the CF card reader. The things you see in the water and on the leaves are there in the original. It is a wild water lily. I did not clean it up. I was not going to walk into that water.

 

 

 

Thanks Cesar!!

Excellent composition. This photo caught my eye immediately. Simple, and elegant!

Margaret, This is very, very nice. The composition is strong. Don't underestimate yourself. The bloom looks good on my monitor. The only complaint is the reflection in the lower left. I would reframe to eliminate this, but hey, who am I? You should be proud of this work.

I like this photo. but am not sure about the tree shadow in the lower left corner. Otherwise a nice photo.

Well executed, both in the field and in the computer. Knowing when to stop is something I haven't learned, yet. I can't imagine liking this nearly as much in color. Nice work!

Thanks everyone for the help and encouragement. I appreciate it. Matt, I rate much the same way. It works for me. ;) Steve, I have printed it out on my Epson Inkjet, on good photo paper. Thanks for prompting me to get going on learning about my printer. It makes a very good 6 X 5.5 print. And, so I see why black and whites are tested on prints rather than on the computer. YES! I am beginning to have a whole new appreciation for black and white. To get a 11 X 17 I would have to resize; as this photo was shot in a 640 X 480 pixels size, which they call small/fine quality. My information says to be carefull on resizing for the pixelization you mention and the quality deteriorates, depending on your printer to some degree as well. I have yet to try this in a larger size. I don't usually print any of my photos. (I don't even have that size paper on hand!) Still have a lot to learn about all of it. Harlan, it was definitely not nice in color, you guessed it. I do have better images of this lily. However, I wanted to use this one because of the grey tones available in the expanse of water. I have been looking at quite a few "bricks' lately, and this has made me more aware of the grey tones, and shades of black and white. Thanks to Doug who tried to explain this to me a while ago. Yes, the water has some debri in it, which is probably what you are seeing Cesar.

Technical issues: flower seems a little overexposed to me, losing some detail. It seems a little over-sharpened - notice the haloes around the flower shadow. Did your camera do that or did you sharpen it in editing?

Outstanding composition here. The photos that really jazz me are the ones that seem at first glance to be very simply composed but then draw you in and make you see subtle and complex detail. This is an excellent example of that. Another one is your recent submission, The Styx. Dynamite work.

excellent work with the psp, you could have actually put the lily in the middle and could have gotten rid of the tree reflection in water,

overall, great work

 

Rajiv, I don't think I want the lily in the middle or the shadow of the tree removed. This is an original set up. I have plenty of liy in the middle shots. This one is unique.

Bruce, I believe the editing did it. I tried quite a few things with this photo. When I am working with a photo, I do not write down what I have done. I just work with it until it looks right to me.

Thanks for all the suggestions, and help and ratings.

I love your style! It is very distinctive... And for some reason, I love images of water lilies!! And this one is wonderful. Was it originally in color? I have never shot water lilies in black and white just color... But after seeing this I am going to... I would love to see that shadow at the bottome left cropped out. Just to the very bottom edge of the leafy material on the bottom left. Great image! Wonderful tones...

It was in color originally. Yes, a few people want that shadow cropped out. I changed it to black and white. I was testing my ability to get a good image in black and white and wanted a good range of the grey scale represented, so I left that black. I think I need that black to help balance the photo's negative space on the right side.

Thanks for your constructive comments. I appreciate them all.

First of all thank you for your comment on my "Night Swimmer" I really appreciate it. However, I still think the black thing in the bottom of the left hand corner of your beatiful image looks like a hairy muppet stuck his hand in the image when taking the photo... It just is disturbing to me and actually seems as if it will grow on the screen and over take your water lily... The reason I am commenting is because I love the image so much... ...sans the hairy muppet hand...

I think this is a beautiful wonderfully simplistic shot. I don't care for the reflection in the lower right, either, but that's pretty much my only complaint. Nice Job Margaret.

I find this an attractive shot. I'm no pro, but I agree with the comments about the flower being "almost" washed out, and I'd like just a little more contrast in the water. Again IMHO, the composition is good. Well done.

Dear Margaret,

This is quite the contraversial shot. Although I don't agree with Rajiv that the lily should be centered (terribly mundane), I do agree with some of the others that the refelction of the tree could go. I can see how the reflection of the fuzzy branch plays with the positive space of the lily and lily pad, but I think you have enough in the dark reflection of the lily if you are going for a broader range of tones. The water is interesting enough to me mostly due to the reflection of the sky and the leaves under its surface. If you were to crop out the reflection of the tree from the bottom and half of the water from rightmost point of the lily pads to the right edge, I think the diagonal composition in a square could still be preserved. And, you'd still be able to see some of the leaves in the water. But, at the end of the day, this is your art. Let me know if you would like me to give you an example. Otherwise, I leave it to your discretion.

Regards,

P.S. On initial inspection, I thought your crop of the tables in Reflect was quite good. It's a little different than what I was going for, but I appreciate the post because now I'm sure which part of the image needs to go. Thanks. =)

Thanks Vicki. I was away when you gave me this excellent detailed critique and so busy when I got back.

 

Yes, this photo has been a good draw for some excellent critiques and ideas. It is one that I printed and the shades of grey become quite apparent in print and I think I need the blacks to balance the white of the lilly. At any rate, its finished now. Thanks for the great comment.

 

Marc, you and I have come a long way together since that comment. I have to thank you for all your terrific help and a good internet friendship. See you on the other place. I have to limit myself to one place, I think. So I am wrapping this portfolio up for now, hopefully.

I like the detail to the water.

Sinceramente, nunca fueron de mi agrado las fotos de flores, pero en este caso tengo que hacer una excepcion. El encuadre es muy original y el contraste de tonos lo realza. Ya se que es una foto de hace a�os pero no me puedo resistir a enviar este comentario. Me chiflaaaaaa !

Thank you for your comment on this old one. It is still one of my favourites.