The Lonely Tricycle

[jeanneholverstott]

I have been experimenting with DOF and wonder what your thoughts are -- bad and good and even neutral! All feedback is helpful.


Aperture:f/1.8
Focal Length:50mm
ISO:200
Shutter:1/1000 sec
Camera:NIKON D90

[docxnoel]

You have a nice DOF, but it is a two-cycle only , i think it is much better if you don't crop the other wheel.

[jentenna]

Ooo. I love the subject and the composition here, and narrow depth of field should serve you well for this scene. BUT, I feel like I keep scanning the trike looking for some details/sharpness, and I'm coming away unsatisfied. I think a couple things might be hurting you here:

1. The photo is overexposed, so you're losing detail and contrast, especially in the blown out seat. I notice you needed a very fast shutter speed to expose this one. Reducing the ISO to 100 would have helped, and I think you could have probably stopped down the aperture a couple ticks without compromising DOF too much. Lenses aren't at their sharpest wide open, anyway.

2. The lighting looks quite flat (presumably because you're in the shade of that tree?). One of the coolest things about rusty old toys are the textures, but you need some side lighting to see it best.

3. To my eye, it also looks like there's a blue cast to the photo.... It's possible that this "look" could actually work for the subject (gives the photo a dreary, cloudy-day feel), but I think you're just losing some of the pop from the rusty colors.

[jentenna]

Originally Posted by docxnoel

You have a nice DOF, but it is a two-cycle only , i think it is much better if you don't crop the other wheel.

Ha! Does this make it a bike, instead of a trike?

I have to preface this with; I'm not entirely comfortable critiquing others work. I guess I don't want to come across too harsh or pompous.
OK, that's out of the way.

Here's what hits me when I see your image.
1.) Stating the obvious - where's the third wheel?
2.) There's an Adirondack chair growing out of the handlebar.
3.) I do like the muted tones. They work for this image. The reddish/rust color of the trike frame could, and should, dominate this photo IF the same color Adirondack chair wasn't trying, and successfully, I might add, to steal the limelight. My eye follows the trike frame right to that chair. I doubt that's what you're trying to capture.
4.) I can't discern what's immediately above the handlebars either, but my eye is drawn to that as well.

An image should tell a story. To me, it doesn't. It asks a question - which is even better! It has me pondering the owner of this trike. How long ago was it that this tricycle lit up the eyes of a curious, innocent child? Where are they now? Did they discover that fascinating world that intrigued them years ago as they explored their surroundings on this three-wheeled exploration machine? Is the owner as old and faded now as this trike appears to be? I see the start of a life's journey when I look at this image. So it naturally causes me to ask those questions.

It's a great image. And I think it could be greater.

Well done. TFS

[jeanneholverstott]

To everyone who took the time to provide words of wisdom, thanks. To wit:
1. Overexposure -- Agreed on the seat.
2. Competing chair -- I have another shot, from another angle, without the chair but I wasn't satisfied. Perhaps, I should have been. The blueish color about the tricycle is also distracting, I agree.
3. Missing the third wheel was a poor oversight. I think I was so worried about that chair that I missed it. I have others with all of the wheels, but for some reason, I like this best.

To hear this is a great shot boosts my confidence a bit, but the feedback helps me be better.

[jeanneholverstott]

Also, it was VERY cloudy when I took this. I came back three hours later, with full sun, and I didn't like what I saw. The clouds help me capture the "feel" I wanted, but I should have bumped up the ISO and I'm glad to know I could have moved a few stops without compromising DOF.

[jentenna]

Just a small point of clarification, because I don't think I said this well in my first post... I suspect you could go down a full stop at least, maybe more. By "ticks" I meant 1/3 or 1/2 steps, but that's not the right way to specify it, considering everyone thinks in full stops.

Anyway, I'd experiment with it. It strongly depends how close you are to the subject, and it's hard to guess because I'm not sure how much you cropped here.

I hope this helped.

[jeanneholverstott]

@jen---didn't crop at all! but i do appreciate the clarification. i will have to experiment. still very new to photography.

[superdewa]

I agree with much of the rest of the critique (the exposure and white balance mean that the bike doesn't stand out against the background), but I disagree that you need the third wheel to make this photo work. This is not the perfect composition, but getting in the whole item does not a perfect composition make either.