Image Doctor
Like to get another perspective on your photography? What are you doing right and what could you improve? Each month in Australian Photography, our resident Image Doctor Saima Morel offers her feedback on a selection of readers' images. Here are her thoughts on five images from our October 2021 issue.
LIGHT AND DARK, YIN AND YANG
“While I was photographing an easterly seascape of waves, rocks and clouds, the sun began to paint up the sky from the north," writes Bruce McDonald. "I quickly relocated to a north-facing spot where the tide and swell moves along an eroded rock channel. It produced an ethereal effect between the rocks and the changing pastel sky.”
Your image gets a big tick for colour, being pin sharp front to back and with a lovely smoky effect. That timed exposure has produced that “ethereal” resultin the water against the rough textures of the rocks.One option would be to make the rocks darker by5 to 10% as darkness will emphasise the smoky water and make it stand out more. You have gone for a wide angle to capture as much as possible, but it is almost too much content. The best bits are in the smoky water in the middle and left. Cropping in could draw more attention to those rocks under the surface of the smoky water. You just don’t need as much of the rock platforms in the frame, especially on the right.
SAIMA'S TIP: Darkness enhances the lighter elements of an image.
THE RE-EDIT
Blane Coulcher writes that this photo was taken a while ago when his post-production skills were fairly basic. "Recently I had some time on my hands and I selected some old photos and had another crack at post editing in Lightroom," he says. "Subsequently I have deepened shadows, and increased clarity and contrast."
That stormy sky and clouds are really quite special. They provide a sensational background, and it’s great to have such a strong foreground interest with the statue. It’s a shame that the angel’s feet are sitting so close to the edge of the frame. A little more space there would make the image look less truncated or chopped off at the bottom. Since you are working on your editing skills, go back and make the blacks a little blacker, as the contrast is a touch flat – this will add a bit more drama.
SAIMA'S TIP: Time can change your perspective and skills so revisiting photos shot a month,a year, or even five years ago can open up worthwhile possibilities.
CENTRE STAGE
Amy Sansom took this photo on the Mid North Coast of NSW, at a location that Amy says is "a secret spot...with a reef break that only occurs with a certain wind and swell combination”.
The colour in that wave is quite gorgeous, and the light hitting the top breaks it into layers, giving it an even better effect. The white billowing spume is an added bonus. The diagonal of the foreground silhouette is also a nice touch. The lighting is cold and with those dark craggy foreground rocks and bushes gives a slightly ominous feel, but then the eye moves past that on to that wonderfully lit wave. My one thought is that the top thirdof the water is pretty dead and doesn’t add anything to the image, so why not crop it to allow the really special elementsto take “centre stage”?
SAIMA'S TIP: Look for the weakest, least interesting parts of an image, and frame to eliminate them.
JUST A FEW TWEAKS
Troy Tompkins writes: “This is a photo of an Australasian Grebe that I came across while visiting my sister at Roma Queensland. There was a family of them on her dam so one afternoon as the sun was setting I snuck in and as they all ducked into the water I lay down by the edge of the dam. I could just peacefully watch them as they did their thing and I could get many photos. It was a beautiful afternoon”.
Shooting into the light has produced a simple and effective reflection image. It is quite minimal and clean with no distractions such as spots or detritus on the water. I think that you could get even more out this bird’s colour through post-production. You could enhance the yellow under the eye, and, using the sponge tool, you could emphasise the brown in the feathers of the body and the reddish tones on the neck. Just a little tweaking could make a good image even better.
SAIMA'S TIP: Looking at online images of the same subject matter can be inspiration to take your photos to another level.
MAKE IT CLEAR
In this macro image, Akira Nakajima has captured an origami crane in a small water droplet. He writes,” The origami crane was suspended behind the water droplet that was clingingto a small twisted twig that I found in my vegetable garden. The twig was positioned just above the water surface. You can also see a tiny air bubble in the water droplet. Nothing was added to the image through editing, the glittering appearance is a result of focus stacking”.
This looks like an indoor scene, though the description suggests it was shot outdoors. It is one of those images that makes you scratch your head wondering what it is. It reminds me of those glass paperweights containing lovely frozen artefacts. I think that it shows good technical skills to get strong depth of field with those multiple images. Well done in terms of technique, but I am not so sure about the content. The backdrop and the origami crane are colourless, and the highlight in the diaphragm and scratchy effects just adda little confusion.
SAIMA'S TIP: If an image needs too much explanation, it may just be too esoteric.
Want to submit a photo to the Image Doctor?
• Email your image to imagedoctor@australianphotography.com with “Image Doctor” in the subject line.
• Include your name, image title and up to 150 words about how you created it.
• Only one image per person per month.
• Images must be saved in JPEG format. Maximum file size is 5MB. Include your name in the filename of the image.
• You must be able to supply an Australian address in order to win the monthly prize.