Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by Azrifel:
~~~~Critique Club Comment~~~~

Composition (content)
Reasonable composition, subject fills the frame well and altough the space around the flowers is nice the flowers themselves are shot with center orientated framing. I'd like to see what a tighter crop does, or some rotation and cropping.
The best thing here is the contrast between the white subject and grey background, good choice to use B&W.
The pointy leaf at the upper left is a bit distracting. It is too much in the foreground and too bright. Getting rid of it would do the composition good.

Background
Good except for that leaf I talked about.

Camera Work (Technical)
Exposure is ok, altough I wonder what a third to two thirds less would do with the detail in the leafs at the upper right but that might darken the middle of the background to much, so I think it is ok.
Choice of aperture is ok, there was some room for a wider setting to blur the background leafs some more.
Good focus and sharpness.

Digital Processing (technical)
No comments.

My opinion
It is a nice picture, but the upper left leaf is a bit distracting, the flowers a bit centered (try a diagonal shot) and it doesn't appeal to me personally, I like bird shots more. :-)

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by byetko:
Nice flower shot. I would have moved in for a closer shot and cropped out some of the background at the top.

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by autool:
I would like to see this in color and without the top left leaf. It leaves me kind of empty now.

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by Yellowpeep:
Pretty flowers. I am wondering about your choice of B&W and would like to see this image in color. They do look like stars.

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by lisae:
Beautiful! I love the shapes of those flowers. The light is lovely and soft, and the blaick and white adds richness to the broad leaves under the flowers. The only thing that doesn't seem to work for me is the slightly boxy composition. All those flowers compete to be the centre of attention, and lead my eyes around and around. It might have been better to frame around one or two flowers than the four of them in this group.

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by Natasha:
Super sharp! I need to learn to use the sharpening tool, the effects here are great!

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by nards656:
I'm giving this a 9. For some reason the BW shots this week are really good. There is a little shadow in the background on the right that distracts me slightly, and the whites on the right are brighter than those on the left. Probably lighting, but it unbalances it for me. Good job.

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by Swashbuckler:
Very sharp photo. Interesting flowers. Good contrast. Either it's growing on me or I'm getting soft. Initial score 7, bumped to 8. Swash

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by magnetic9999:
truly lovely. i think if the focus had been a bit sharper or u had used some sharpen this could have been a real contenda : )

Earthbound Stars
by mjcecil

Comment by crabappl3:
You are a victim of a low score. I'm bumping my original one. The more I look at it the better I like it. If I were cropping it though, I would have cropped to just above the right flowers. The light grey area between the flowers at the top is a little distracting for me. Good ability to not blow out the white of the flowers while leaving the leaves light enough to see their details.