You’ve done such a wonderful job with this assignment. You’ve accomplished exactly what we were hoping you’d accomplish. You’ve taken a ‘beast” photograph which is the same location as your “beauty” photograph, but you’ve transformed the composition using nothing more than your creative ideas and compositional variations.
Let’s start by identifying some of the issues of your “beast” photograph. For starters, the image has soft focus. Especially when you want to start blowing up your photographs, this will become an increasingly important technical element to keep your eye on.
Secondly your lighting is fairly flat. When working in small spaces like the one you’re working in, you’ll want to find ways to wrap and mould the light around your objects. I’ve seen much flatter lighting, but in your ‘beast” photograph the lighting is still fairly lifeless compared to the lighting in your “beauty” photograph.
I love the composition and lighting of your “beauty” photograph. It’s dark, but well exposed and very moody. You’ve managed to cut the majority of the light off the background (Did you use flags to cut the light?) while still keeping the littlest bit of background exposed to help provide context and texture.
You use side lighting as your foreground lighting which really helps you draw out the texture in the flower as well as provide interesting shadows around the rest of your composition. Side lighting is one of the most dramatic angles of lighting to use and it helps ensure your lighting won’t be considered flat or lifeless. Great work.
Overall, you’ve done a wonderful job with this assignment. I look forward to seeing your next photograph!