Flower Tattoo

[NatalieMaree]

I just started out photography as a hobbie and im looking for some ideas and thoughts and ways to improve, what do you think of this photograph of my friends cherry blossom tattoo??

[NatalieMaree]

here it is, sorry, im getting used to the whole forum thing.....P7050029_992x744.jpg

[BigFuzzy]

Hi Natalie,
Welcome to DPS and photography in general!

As for this photo, I'm going to be blunt because I think it'll be most helpful than talking around it.
To me, this is simply a snap shot.
To me, this is a shot of a persons arm with a tattoo that doesn't really do anything for me.

As a newb to photography, you've got to always ask yourself, "what am I trying to show" and "what can I do to make it look like something different and unique" because now, everyone is a photographer. So it's very likely that someone has already done this exact same shot about a billion times.. how is yours different/better/more unique? Once you start asking yourself that and start pushing yourself to work on the answer to those questions, that's when you'll start seeing improvements.

What I'll say specifically is this. Your point of interest is the tattoo.. then why is is such a small almost irrelevant part of the image. Someone once told me, find what it is about the image and really get in on that and focus on it. MAKE it the subject. Right now the tattoo is about 5% of the image, but I think it was 100% of what you thought was interesting.. so why not focus on it. Is the rest of her arm, or the grass, or her legs/skirt relevant to the image? If not, why are they such promenent parts of it?

Also, I know it's tough to dislocate yourself from the significance of this image since you and your friend got tattooed together, but you have to think of us, the viewer. We don't know that.. so how are we going to connect to it because right now it's just an arm with a tattoo. We can't even see how good the ink work is because it's so small in the image.


I think you get my point, right? Sorry if I sound harsh, a) that's just me b) I'm really trying to help you think about what you're photographing so you'll see the improvement and quality I'm sure you're aiming for.
It's early for you, so shoot A LOT. Shoot everything and always ask yourself why you're shooting it and how can you make it better. Even if you don't know how on a technical level, it'll push you to learn it.

Good luck and keep posting!

[Nicole]

Following on the good advice that Al gave you, I'll offer a thought of how you could reshoot to try to take on some of that advice.

First, I would try to remove the distractions in the background. You could have her place her hand on a black or white sheet and focus on just the hand and wrist. Or you could pose her something like this FEBRUARY Girl | Flickr - Photo Sharing! or this The Amputation of a Friendship | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Second, the skin tones seem quite cool in temperature. It's hard getting the right skin tones if you're pale. But I would try warming the tones up a little.

All in all, I'd focus more on making the tattoo a clearer subject in the photo. Hope that helps a bit.

[NatalieMaree]

wow!, to the point!

Thanks for the lines of encouragement at the end, makes a new photographer want to run outside and start right away!

I do see your point though about it only being 5% of the picture ... also doesnt look as good since I reduced it so much - even if you do click on it.... i will get the hang of this forum stuff :P

[NatalieMaree]

Thanks Nicole - that is a great help... i will have a play around and re-shoot it