Buttercup – Martin Clifton

Canon EOS 550D, 18-55mm, 1/320sec at f/5.6, ISO 200

Original by Martin Clifton

I’m not usually keen on the idea of purposely allowing part of an image to 
burn out and for that image to contain no blacks – or even dark tones – but here is the exception to the rule. Martin’s buttercup is delightfully light and jolly, and the brightness of the tones lends the picture a very welcome air of spring. Muted pastel shades and the simplicity of the subject make the whole thing extremely pleasant indeed.


A square crop to remove the blue sky in the top left corner and a
vignette to darken the edges of the frame help Martin’s image stand out a
little more

The only part of the image that bothers me is the patch of bright sky in the top left corner because it draws the eye and competes too much with the flower. My solution is to trim the image square to exclude this distraction, and then to darken the edges of the frame with a moderate vignette, just to concentrate the eye on the subject and to make it stand out a little more.

This is a really lovely shot, so Martin wins my picture of the week prize. Well done.

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