a wrench in the systemby
autohuffComment by ClubJuggle: Greetings from the Critique Club!
When requesting a critique, we recommend that you fill out the Photographer's Comments. By describing what types of suggestions you are looking for and/or telling us what you were trying to accomplish with your photograph, we are able to provide you with the most useful critique possible. When this is not provided, we still do the best we can. I apologize in advance if any assumptions I make on this photograph are incorrect.
This photograph clearly meets the challenge, but could use some improvements to give it an extra edge in the scoring.
Photographs of tools are typically about form and texture, so black and white was a good choice for this entry.
Your light source seems very harsh and falls off quickly as it gets away from the camera. This suggests that perhaps an on-camera flash was used? On-camera flashes typically perform poorly as a primary light source, and at most are useful as a fill flash to fill in shadow areas in daylight shooting. You will typically get better results by using an off-camera light source, using a tripod if necessary to facilitate a longer exposure.
The natural flow of your image is from right to left. This can be unappealing to some viewers as human nature is to want to "read" a photograph, and for most people that means they want to scan the photograph from left to right.
Also, the photograph appears to be a bit crooked. It looks, in fact, like it was rotated counter-clockwise (the wrenches were actually lying on a table or the floor). In any case, the wrenches are at a very noticeable angle relative to the edge of the photograph, so this probably should have been rotated a bit further. Of course, it is best to get the photograph as close to level as possible when shooting.
The wrenches in the foreground are out of focus. Since the wrenches are your main subject matter, they should typically be in focus in the foreground (it is probably ok if they fall off toward the background). You could resolve this either by using a smaller aperture (higher f/number) or by focusing on the wrenches in the front.
A tighter crop in the background may have added a sense of infinity to this photograph, creating the illusion that the wrenches go on forever. This might even be strengthened by rotating the entry back clockwise so the wrenches were parallel with the bottom edge. Both of these are a matter of personal preference. Feel free to try them and see what you think.
In all, this is a good concept that could benefit from some additional attention to the details outlined above. Feel free to try any of the suggestions above and see if you think they improve the photograph. Of course, you are 100% welcome to disagree with any of the suggestions as well, that's what makes art what it is!
Photographer found comment helpful.
