Beautiful photograph! My initial reaction to this photograph was very positive. The pastel colors give this image a very light, spring-like feel.
This assignment asked that you study the color wheel to create an image that takes into account the differences between analogous and complimentary colors. You’ve decided to create a composition that uses complimentary colors which has helped you create a dramatic composition that “pops” off the screen. Great work.
Now, let’s look at a few other technical components of the photograph.
For starters, I love the lighting in this photograph. The shadows on the flower petals seem to indicate that the sun is behind the flower casting the shadows of the leaves in the background down onto the petals. This helps add texture and an interesting color gradient into your composition. While we do stress the importance of simplification, at the same time it’s important to create complicated enough images so they aren’t lifeless and flat. Playing with gradients of colors and shadows is a great way to do that.
Secondly, your use of a shallow depth of field is great. It has allowed you to isolate your foreground object, while maintaining the context of your background. It’s also allowed you to slightly amputate some secondary objects in the background without making your composition distracting or disorganized. As a general rule of thumb, soft focus on your background will make any amputation less distracting.
Lastly, I love the use of your negative space (i.e. sky). There is a little bit of detail in the blue found in a soft, white cloud which helps not only slightly texture the negative space, but the gentle cloud also complements the white in your color palette.
Overall, great work on this assignment!