Want critique Mushroom composition practice

[TMG1961]

My composition skills are not my strongest skill and i am working on it all the time. I don't have an eye for it and it is very hard for me. I often do not see a great photo in things. A lot of time when i see photos from other people i think that i just would have walked passed it and would not have seen the photo in it.

Here are a few photos of the practice session from this afternoon

 

[Tina Boes]

I absolutely love that second photo! The bokeh of the background mushrooms is really nice. I might have moved that leaf away from the front 'shroom....but it looks nice just the way it as well. Lovely shot.
Would you mind if I downloaded and did a little cropping on the third photo? I would like to focus on those three 'shrooms at the side of the stump.

 

[Andy Smith]

A great start TMG and it is all about practice, which you seem to be doing. A couple of the shots are nice, notably image 2 & 4, but agree with Tina about moving the leaf from image 2.
My take on your compositions is that you try to get too much in the frame, a challenge I have quite often also. Sometimes you need to just focus on the main subject and get in close to that. The more you have going on in the image, the more distracting it can be. If your eye is wandering from subject to subject, or flicking all over the image then usually there is too much going on. Most times simpler is better for good compositions.
Keep at it though because someday soon it will just all come together and you will be pleased you put the effort in.

 

[Chavezshutter]

These are pretty good, I also like the second one ,the fourth one is pretty good too but I would have put the mushrooms slightly more centered as well as maybe raised the camera to give the mushrooms more headroom and minimize the foreground a little. The first photo would be easily improved by narrowing DOF and get some background bokeh. I find photos with everything in focus to be more of a snap than a photo but that just my opinion. One thing I still use is showing rule of third guidelines on my EVF, I dont follow this "rule" all the time but I do find it helpful and a good way to compose.

 

[Helix_2648]

I prefer the second one as well. I really know how you feel because my first photos looked a bit like yours. but I tried it again and again and was always inspired by other mushroom photographs and so I became better and better over the last years.

 

[TMG1961]

I absolutely love that second photo! The bokeh of the background mushrooms is really nice. I might have moved that leaf away from the front 'shroom....but it looks nice just the way it as well. Lovely shot.
Would you mind if I downloaded and did a little cropping on the third photo? I would like to focus on those three 'shrooms at the side of the stump.

Thank you, feel free to download it. I can also make the raw files available for download if you want to have a go at them. But they are 82Mb each so big files to work with. I uploaded them to my google drive, so just give a shout if you want to download them.

 

[TMG1961]

Did try a bit of editing myself to make the leaf less visible on the photo. This is what i came up with.

 

[TMG1961]

A great start TMG and it is all about practice, which you seem to be doing. A couple of the shots are nice, notably image 2 & 4, but agree with Tina about moving the leaf from image 2.
My take on your compositions is that you try to get too much in the frame, a challenge I have quite often also. Sometimes you need to just focus on the main subject and get in close to that. The more you have going on in the image, the more distracting it can be. If your eye is wandering from subject to subject, or flicking all over the image then usually there is too much going on. Most times simpler is better for good compositions.
Keep at it though because someday soon it will just all come together and you will be pleased you put the effort in.

Thanks for the tips. Will keep them in mind and try to go by the less is more rule.

These are pretty good, I also like the second one ,the fourth one is pretty good too but I would have put the mushrooms slightly more centered as well as maybe raised the camera to give the mushrooms more headroom and minimize the foreground a little. The first photo would be easily improved by narrowing DOF and get some background bokeh. I find photos with everything in focus to be more of a snap than a photo but that just my opinion. One thing I still use is showing rule of third guidelines on my EVF, I dont follow this "rule" all the time but I do find it helpful and a good way to compose.

Thanks for the comment. I do not use the guidelines, for me they are to distracting. I know the rule of thirds but most of the time i forget to use it. I must start paying more attention to the view in the evf/lcd screen before pushing the shutter button

I prefer the second one as well. I really know how you feel because my first photos looked a bit like yours. but I tried it again and again and was always inspired by other mushroom photographs and so I became better and better over the last years.

Thank you, I for sure will keep trying, and someday things will come together.

 

[Tina Boes]

Thank you, feel free to download it. I can also make the raw files available for download if you want to have a go at them. But they are 82Mb each so big files to work with. I uploaded them to my google drive, so just give a shout if you want to download them.

I did a bit of cropping last night to try to focus on the three at the side of the stump and reduce the business on the right of the photo. I tried not to let the angle cut through the picture directly in half, keeping close to the rule of thirds. I lightened up the shadows a little as well. Just a quick edit, but here it is. Let me know what ya think.

​

 

[Tina Boes]

Did try a bit of editing myself to make the leaf less visible on the photo. This is what i came up with.

I like that perspective much better without the blurry leaf in the foreground. Good job.