Ants

[stardeenaw]

1.In what area is critique to be sought?
Would like to get some comments on composition and lightning.

2.What one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Portrayal of Teamwork

3.Under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
This was taken by a compact cam, it was the time before i got my DSLR. I was walking on a wooden bridge in Sarawak when I came across a line of ant, on closer observation, I realised that they are helping one another to cross the big gap in between the planks.

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I took this picture in a rush as the 'ant line' was finishing soon. I felt that it was quite similiar to those pictures we see in motivational posters (the ones with a thick black border). Problem seems to be the colour contrast of the ant and the green grass in the background.

Thanks!

 

[crazyhamster]

I like this photo a lot, albeit there seemed to be something wrong with the composition. I feel that it was not as zoomed it as it should have been, and there should be no tilt on the "horizon( in this case, the planks)". But it is a nice moment captured nonetheless!

 

[hantsung]

I like this shot but also agree with Hamster. I think the 3rd ant on the LHS should be cloned out and the shadow on the bottom half of the photo is distracting. If you zoom in more, you will capture more detail of the ants, which is what we're curious about

 

[nigel84]

The tilt on the planks is ok, a sense of uneven ground which explains why the ants are bridging. Apparantly what is not working in this picture composition is because everything is smack right into the centre. A rule of thumb, although not something that must always be followed is the rule of thirds. In the pic above, I would prefer to have the bottom half and probably a bit of the right hand side of the frame cropped away. Try it, it makes a whole world of diference.

 

[nysheng]

the dof is giving me a headache... it's too thin...are u using like a f1.8 or sth? mayb a 4/5 might be better...

focal point is quite obviously the ants, but they are too small!
too much space on the planks too. composition is quite bad imho....

u should have zoomed in on the two ants crossing...with a suitable caption pple can tell what they are doing..u wun need to show the two gigantic planks on both sides.

the in focused ants vs the out of focus bg directly behind one another is a slight disturbing visually..i'm not sure why.....:dunno:

 

[stardeenaw]

Thank you for all your constructive feedback and suggestions.
I couldn't set the aperture as it is a canon ixus. Here's a tighter crop. Is it better?

 

[rendition]

I couldn't set the aperture as it is a canon ixus. Here's a tighter crop. Is it better?

Take this as a compliment. Just mean that people think the image is off a DSLR when it's not. Nontheless, if I were to capture this, I'd crop where the ants would be in middle of frame but like art, there's no die-die rule of thumb, just difference in style. Nice capture anyway.

 

[nysheng]

Thank you for all your constructive feedback and suggestions.
I couldn't set the aperture as it is a canon ixus. Here's a tighter crop. Is it better?

i just realised sth..ur ants aren't in focus...but the plank on the right appears to be..hmmmmm:think:

nxt time if u r stuck without a dslr, ur ixus has a macro function which allows u to shoot some form of macro..but u have to go super close like abt..2 cm or so..

good try nonetheless..keep it up!

 

[jackzhangxiao]

nice composition. however,the ant at the right not focus

 

[Richter]

I think the new crop is better as it removed the shadow cast by the photographer.

 

[night86mare]

nice moment

the new crop is better simply because, there is more weight given to the focus point, and in the original picture what the photographer wants the viewers to see is such a small fraction of the image!

that is fine, if details were not important, but they are here!