I'm fascinated by this image. Flowers must be one of the most photographed subjects, and yet they aren't easy to capture well, let alone uniquely. But I think the photographer has successfully managed to do so here. The intricate pattern is interesting to look at, especially with the depth of field revealing a blurred out layer of it further back. The light softly catches the stems, highlighting their pleasant smoothness and glossiness. I love the colour palette, refreshingly cool with its mix of emerald, lime and turquoise. Last but not least, the vignetting adds a note of intimate poetry to the already beautiful capture.
What an incredible, unique capture. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the photographer's technical challenges and story behind this image. The flash is beautifully positioned. It highlights the bat just enough to set it apart from the dark sky, freezing its flight and making its features & colours clearly visible. No doubt it must have taken much planning to be able to capture the bat spread-winged and in the right place within the frame so as not to overlap with the landscape beyond. The subtle vignetting embraces the night scene, giving it an even more intimate feel. It's an image I will remember for a long time to come.
This powerful image stopped me from scrolling. The first thing to catch my eye was the subject's beauty, but it's in the details of the open mouth and eye contact that the magic happens. The straight-on flash takes some depth away from the shot, but gives it graphic modern qualities that are extremely appealing. The gentle vignetting, the cherry on the cake, helps draw the attention onto the subject in all of their majestic beauty.
833 Images entered
449 Photographers
Brief
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Vignetting - the darkening or softening of the edges of an image, in particular around the corners - is a natural occurrence with certain lenses, but is also created deliberately as an artistic effect. It places more emphasis on the subject in the centre of the frame, and can give an old-time and nostalgic feel to an image, as the effect is one that was employed a lot more in the past. Nowadays it’s an effect that can be reproduced with a lot of control and variation in post-processing software such as Affinity Photo or Photoshop, and can really produce a pleasing result. As with all post-processing, subtlety is usually well rewarded! No frames or illustrated/graphic borders should be added to images for this contest.
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