Help with photo contest decision

[usfpaul82]

Hey Guys (and gals)! I am in a small photography club at work and we have a monthly photo contest. This months theme is "Bugs". I took these two today and can't decide which of the two is best. I am leaning towards the Bee. Any thoughts or comments and which is better?? Thanks!

 

[BlueCorn]

It's hard to say at this resolution. Neither is particularly sharp. From a compositional aspect the first is a little stronger. The clipped off wing, body and nearly clipped antennae distract from the rest of the composition.

Cheers

 

[usfpaul82]

I can work on the cropping some on the Bee. There is also this one.

 

[usfpaul82]

Here is one of the entire bee. Look better?

 

[BlueCorn]

Much better. It's also stronger, IMO, than the one with the bee dead center. Now work on the processing a little. Don't be afraid of processing your images. Nearly every image can be helped by some appropriate processing. It's not cheating. Ansel Adams didn't take his film to Costco for development. Here's a quick edit. I didn't do anything with colors, just some dodging/burning and sharpening.

I also marked this one up so you can't use it.

 

[usfpaul82]

Thanks Beerguy. I have photoshop cs4 but am very new to photography and editing. what you did looks great, now i just have to learn photophop.

 

[BlueCorn]

Another tip. If these are going to be displayed on the web, convert them to sRGB before saving. You can do that via the "Save for web" dialog or use "Edit/Convert to Profile/sRGB"

You're saving in AdobeRGB which looks great in Photoshop but will look like garbage in most Windows based browsers.

Cheers

 

[ducklabdad]

I really like your dragonfly the best of the two. The "bee" in your other photo by the way is actually a wasp called a "cicada Killer"

Which is a very cool customer!! http://invertebrates.ws/killerwasphotos.htm

 

[usfpaul82]

Ok, i did some dodge/burn and sharpening. I think this is the final. Thanks again for all the tips.

 

[IPT]

sems like you have made up your mind...but, I like the Dragonfly myself. The worked up Bee (without the croping as Doug mentioned) looks much better though. Still, to me it just feels like he needs more breathing space on the right. I feel like my eye is drawn right to his eyes, up the antena and then right out of the picture. The Dragonfly keeps me bouncing around within the frame. Plus I think it has nicer colors too (and especially once you post process it like with the bee). JMO, it's art though and everyone sees things differently. Good luck either way!

 

[BlueCorn]

Yeah - it's all pretty subjective. The composition is a little stronger in the dragonfly, but the point of focus is wrong. If the head were sharper I'd probably change my mind.

Either one works and each has some nit-picky issues. Pick one.

 

[usfpaul82]

here is the best I could do post processing wise with the dragon fly....decisions decisions!

 

[klepto]

I like the wasp image- your post processing looks good too- perhaps a tad more saturation would be effective (especially with your greens).

good luck with your contest!

 

[kilroy217]

personally, i would go for the wasp.

 

[IPT]

Well, I recant. I like the dragonfly composition, but on closer inspection with him sort of facing away it loses a little something. Go with the wasp .

 

[usfpaul82]

Thanks everyone! The wasp it is!