Student’s Comments:
What I like:
- The soft-focus background against the plant in the foreground that is in focus and has sharper edges.
What could be improved:
- Composition.
Dan’s Comments:
What I like:
- Love the closeup effect with the blurred background and delicate flowers in the foreground. This is a good way to control and push where you want the viewer to look.
- The overall color theme is pleasing. The muted and warm background plays well with the cool and rich greens in focus. None of the colors look out of place.
- Good brushwork and detailing. Finer details like this can be finicky.
What could be improved:
- You could do something more with the focal point. You have set up the composition in a way that all attention is on the focal point. But the focal point itself appears somewhat understated. Perhaps a cluster of vivid flowers would be better for the role?
- The highlights on the green leaves at the bottom look out of place. A warmer highlight would do better. Be careful with defaulting to pure titanium white for highlights. Reserve it for only the brightest highlights, if at all. And always think about the color temperature of the main light source. In this case, the sun during the day would typically produce a warm light, meaning warm highlights and cool shadows (this is not a strict rule, but it is a good rule of thumb).
- I like the blurred background, but perhaps it is a bit extreme. It looks like you have taken a macro photo and painted that.