crop more or less? Tweak anything else?

[STB]

This was one of those happy accidents for me, a newbie. I was trying to focus on the oranges in a neighbor's yard but the leaf on the tree kept grabbing the focus so I took some shots and ended up really liking a couple of them. In the original there were a few branches along the top that seemed distracting so I cropped those out but I wonder if I should have taken off some more from the left? The only other thing I did was apply the auto-fix in Picnik because it seemed to tighten everything up.



Camera Nikon Coolpix P500
Aperture f/5.7
Focal Length 144 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Program Aperture-priority AE
Focus Mode AF-S

[richardsarazin]

Great...you can actually use this photo in any direction and it will still look artistic

[STB]

Originally Posted by richardsarazin

Great...you can actually use this photo in any direction and it will still look artistic

Thank you, Richard.

[milosh]

I would say that you have two points of interest here, one is the branch and the other are the oof oranges.

If you leave it like this, the eye (my eye at least) keeps jumping right & left all the time. It's clear that the branch is your main subject, but the oranges steal away viewers attention.

If you would crop it to get rid of the oranges, it would still be nice, although the black area is a bit of a party breaker.

If you crop it to get rid of the branch then you're left without a subject.

IMO, it would be best if the green area was covering the entire background behind the branch. Since you say that this is your neighbor's back yard, I suggest you wait for some nice light and give it another try. Try to replicate these shooting settings (aperture, focal length and distance from the branch!) while trying to compose the shot a bit differently (so that the green area fills the background, or at least most of it). Also, I'm not sure which settings are you able to control in your camera, but try to play with exposure compensation a bit if you have it (notice that the small leaves on the branch are overexposed)!

[baajero]

I wouldn't crop it to be honest... but I would have optimised the exposure of the orange leafs... that leaf seems over exposed... try spot metering or partial... Great picture though

[STB]

Thank you, milosh and baajero. Lots of food for thought. I'm new to all this so there will be many experiments ahead. I appreciate the input to help me learn.