Critique the Composition of this photo please....

Question

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22667469@N06/2742474355/

Right after a significant rainfall, I encountered a nice image I couldn't resist photographing. Unfortunately, like most people, I had a camera on hand, but not my nice SLR. SO this is a cell phone pic. Harder to work with. The focus of my inquiry is more about composition than anything else since I was very limited on the other options I could pursue adjusting light, exposure, etc. Do you like the picture? What would you have done differently?

Answer 1

Someone said it.  It's not composed.  It's a pretty subject you stood over and shot.  Maybe get down like you did the snail thingy.

Your faucet and snail are great thoug. Stay in that direction.  "think outside the box"

Answer 2

Well, posting this question certainly has done wonders for your Flickr page traffic.

The image, well antoni, sam and others have told you what you need to do better, this is a mere snapshot.

Keep at it, and don't leave home without your fancy SLR...

Answer 3

omg if thats a cell phone pic then its amazing!  also even if u took with a good camera its still beautiful

Answer 4

I do like it. It just needed a little help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16949082@N0...

Let me know when you want me to remove it.

Answer 5

Its nice, but something's missing...i think its the focus of the picture. i can't place it...and you could perhaps place the leaf off-center...other than that, its a really nice photo!

Answer 6

i would have off centered the leaf...perhaps even let some of it be out of frame... i would have taken 3-5 shots of the subject at different positions and then picked one of a few for the composition. the guy with the funny name is right it is too centered, it's called rule of thirds, or the rule of the golden mean, it means that to center an image is generally not acceptable to the eye.  rules in art are general though and not etched in stone, most of the time they work

sometimes they can be tossed.

the image of the leaf itself is interesting, and could be cropped and used for part of another larger "collage" of images which is what i'd do were it my image.

EDIT: actually sam did what i was talking about.

there is nothing in the rule book that says an image has to be of a whole thing.

Answer 7

Um. It looks like what it's supposed to look like, so I guess it's good!

Answer 8

Boring.  Anyone could "capture" a leaf lying flat on the sidewalk.  It's interesting that it has large blobs of water on it, but the composition does not interest me at all.  Maybe you could crop it to show only a part of the leaf so that it would take more than a millisecond to figure out what it is that we are looking at.  There are many possibilities, but here's one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...

~~~~~~

I'm very sorry that this came off as mean.  I answered honestly is all.  I guess it was late and I was tired.

Q: Do you like the picture?

A: "the composition does not interest me at all"

Q: What would you have done differently?

A: " Maybe you could crop it to show only a part of the leaf"

I also took some time and tried various crops and posted an example.  I apologize for sounding mean, because my only intention was to give honest answers to your questions and then provide some constructive help.  I hope you can accept that without thinking I am really being mean.  :-)

I have a 2 year old RAZR and I have used it the same way you did.  If it's all you've got, you just make the most of it.  I've found that trying to capture detail in a cell phone is only going to frustrate you, but capturing colors and textures are usually fine.  There are comments and tips under these pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...

For a very high quality camera that fits in your pocket and is not prohibitively expensive, if you are interested, look at the Canon SD950-IS.  I use a D300 for a "real" camera, but the SD950 is an excellent P&S that keeps me happy when I just want to stick a camera in my pocket.  I have shown pics taken with this camera or the SD900 before it and I've had a few of them published, as well.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...

Answer 9

Beautiful Picture! Perhaps you could have off centered it so it wouldn't be right in the middle, I also would have made it so maybe you could see something behind it, making only the leaf in focus. But seeing as you did it on a cell phone that would have been really hard to do. Great job and good luck with your future pictures!

Answer 10

there is no composition, its a centered image

cameras dont compose images - people do

look up rule of thirds, learn it, then learn when to use it and when to ignore it

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