Total judging points: 29
Judge's Comments:
1. This is a very pleasing image. The contrast between the very simple background and the in-focus foreground creates a very pleasing effect. The "Rule of Threes" would not have worked in this image. A couple of suggestions: (1) Clone out the first right sprig of the stem of the taller plant; (2) clone out the white area in the left edge of the image; and (3) if possible without ruining the image, eliminate the out-of-focus brown leaf in the lower left corner.--Good job!
2. I really like how the photographer has tightly cropped this composition to show just a pair of blooms. I also love the soft bokeh which creates a nice background against which the blooms can stand out.
What holds this image back for me is the lack of sharpness. I tried to zoom in on this picture and I couldn’t find a single point of absolute sharpness anywhere in the picture. Perhaps this is an aberration of what I am seeing on Zenfolio. Admittedly, achieving sharpness across the full plane of the subject in close-up work is sometimes difficult. But when there’s not a sharp point anywhere in the picture, the absence of such stands out.
If there were an opportunity to shoot this scene again, the photographer might try stopping down to get more depth of field (admittedly sacrificing some bokeh), engage the camera’s “motor drive” to shoot a series of images in rapid succession (of which one may be sharper than the rest), or use a reflector or diffusion screen to block any wind that might be making focus difficult. I might also reframe the composition so that the blooms are not in the same plane of focus. By doing this, the single blooms that’s in focus would stand out more from its companion.