sad litlle snail

[JFSanders]

Marija, Wonderful subject you have chosen. From a technical standpoint the camera will not let you do too many bad things. So technically your photo is pretty good. From an artistic standpoint and a designer standpoint, your photo is just off the mark. When you are going to make a photograph it is just as important maybe more important to get the back ground right. When you see a subject that you find interesting you should stare at it from different angles. Kind of like a plane flying around it, high, low, left, right, down, up, etc. While doing that make sure you not only look at your subject but what is behind it as well.

Looking at your picture, see where if you had panned to the left it would have had more green instead of sky? If you panned right, it would have had more yellow than blown out sky? Also, if your intention was to show his precarious hold on the leaf would it have been better to shoot from above instead of eye level?

As a first try, I think it is wonderful. Get to the library and find books on photography to help you understand just what goes on when you push that button. The artistic part is already within you. Keep posting.

[Marija]

Thank you all for giving me that much information! It means a lot for my learning about photography.
At the time I took this photo I was thinking just about the snail. I took few photos, from the nearest point possible from snail. I wanted snail to be entirely clear and to be seen eating a leaf. ( No one noticed that, so obviously I did it sooo wrong ) Didn't think about colors, background, snails position ...
Now , after your replies, my sight is a little bit wider. I'm going to post more photos since I believe this is great way to learn from own mistakes. Hope my next photo will contain comments good as these once.

[craigmstevens]

I agree with most of what everybody has said except about looking from above. If you captured it from above you would not get most of that beautiful shell in the shot. This is a great photo, if the blown out sky is something that is causing a negative feel to the shot, fix it. No need to find the snail and take another shot. get a little creative and artistic , take the snail and the branch it is attached to only, put it on a black background, make a nice boarder frame and call it done. That is if you have Photoshop or something like it. Some cases, like this one where the subject is the only thing worth focusing on, take everything else away.

[Footski]

Okay here goes. I like the photo, but in my humble opinion, I think there is too much "clutter" in the background, which I appreciate has been thrown out of focus by a fairly large aperture. Maybe an even larger aperture would have reduced the appearance of the background even more.

[Marija]

Originally Posted by craigmstevens

I agree with most of what everybody has said except about looking from above. If you captured it from above you would not get most of that beautiful shell in the shot.

Exactly!

Because of everybody's comments I gave up my snail! But, now you save it
I'll try to do something in GIMP, hope I'll manage


Thanks Craigmstevens!


Footski, thanks for advice!

[lrivetz]

The snails color texture is brilliant for me. One thing that I would change is the side where the shell seems to have a crack? If you have a Photoshop, you can use clone stamp or healing brush to repair it.

[Marija]

Thanks for your reply Irivetz!

I'm glad there are many opinions on this photo.

I'll try to fix the shell

[CaptainNH]

I like the detail and patterns in the snail shell too - I'm not sure about him/her being sad through - I think more contently full - he's eaten a fair amount of that leaf!

The background could be improved - but when you're starting out, I know that your focus is on the main subject. Others have given you plenty of tips to try out next time!

[Marija]

CaptainNH, thanks, your comment put )))) on my face

I'm trying to improve background in Gimp, but it doesn't seem to be easy for me...learning, learning photography, PP...

[TwoFeetForward]

I would crop a little bit from the top and left sides to push the snail into the Rule of Thirds. I also like to remove a bit of saturation from low-contrast pictures, but that's only if you want to do some post production. It's a really witty picture, and is quite eye-catching. I like it a lot.