Total judging points: 23
Judge's Comments:
1. The photographer went for a "second bite of the apple" with this group of plants and made a potentially very pleasing mood image. This judge's critique focuses on in-camera solutions, not post-processing. Basically, not enough of the foreground plant is in focus (seeds and pedals--the stem is OK). A smaller aperture, perhaps f8--maybe f11, might have helped. The composition of the image is very pleasing, and the grain helps the mood... A really good idea only partially executed.
2. What I like most about this image are the simplicity of concentrating our attention on just two plants and the dream-like quality of the soft focus and the creamy bokeh. Depending on the photographer’s intent, this dreaminess might be exactly the effect desired. But for my taste, I would prefer that at least some portion of the dandelions be tack sharp, and I just don’t see any spot-on point of sharpness in this image. That could be a limitation of Zenfolio.
If the opportunity to reshoot this scene were to arise, I might suggest a few adjustments. First, recompose to focus on just one dandelion, and the most nearly perfect one on offer. Both the dandelions shown here look a bit ragged, the one in the background more so. But a shot of just the one in the foreground would still be interesting if the entire bloom were in focus. Probably the only way to achieve that without losing the beautiful bokeh would be to focus stack the shot. Since the photographer is already shooting at 1/4000, there should be lots of latitude to experiment.