C&C requested...

[vicious1]

Ok, I took this shot in the Tokyo Fishmarket and sent it to a friend because I think it came out nicely. In turn it got put on stumbleupon and has had several hundred hits and thumbs up.

While i am happy that people seem to like it, I keep thinking there is something that needs to be improved on it but I can't put my finger on it. I think the overall mood is good but i am just a noob so I would like to get proper criticism, not just a thumbs up or down

//vic
PS: for those interested, shot with a D90 and 50mm prime at f1.8

 

[miles01110]

Personally I find the subject of the picture to be a little ambiguous. The large blocky thing takes up a very large portion of the frame, and isn't very interesting.

 

[vicious1]

finally someone...

hey thanks... good point hmmm you think cropping the bottom part away might be better?
I do want the tuna to be distinguishable in the picture still but yes you are right about the block.

//vic

 

[wheelhot]

Hmm, since you asked for CnC, I'm not sure why people gives several thumbs up for this picture?

Cause I don't really find any interesting in this picture except for the bell and the perspective (the angle of the blue box thingy adds perspective). I dunno, maybe its just me

Sorry.

Edit:
Well since you mentioned that you want the tuna to be distinguishable, try taking in a way that the tuna stands out, and since there is a lot of tuna there, avoid any objects that is colored cause it will draw the eyes toward the colored object instead of the tuna unless you deliberately want it to be that way

 

[CrackedButter]

It is a very dull picture made a little more interesting with the use of selective focus (I'm a sucker for it). I've been to the same fish market, there is many more interesting things you could have acquired as a snap while you were there.

 

[vicious1]

true that

I agree that there are more interesting things to take a snap of,
what blew me away was the sheer mechanical process and quantity of tunas. One of those goes for more than 5000 USD, a 300KG blue fin goes for more than 60000.

The bell was constantly in use and when the auctioner (is that the guy that says "going once, going twice.."?) set it down I just took the image. Like I said, Personally I find that something is missing in this but there are still people hitting on it and voting on it, then again some users are like flashmobs

 

[Abstract]

It actually takes a bit of effort to see that those are fish in the background. Doesn't matter anyway. I don't know why I'm looking at the photo. What's the subject? It also took me a second to see that it was a bell rather than a metal handle protruding from a large metal block of some sort. And even after I see that it's probably a bell, I wonder why I'm looking at it.

 

[CrackedButter]

I agree that there are more interesting things to take a snap of,
what blew me away was the sheer mechanical process and quantity of tunas. One of those goes for more than 5000 USD, a 300KG blue fin goes for more than 60000.

The bell was constantly in use and when the auctioner (is that the guy that says "going once, going twice.."?) set it down I just took the image. Like I said, Personally I find that something is missing in this but there are still people hitting on it and voting on it, then again some users are like flashmobs

If the bell was constantly in use surely you have a photo of that? Human expressions reacting to the bell would have made for a more interesting image.

 

[ChrisA]

I like your picture better when it is cropped wide. Remove everything above the tip of the bell handle and below the diamond shape of the top of the block. The top and bottm strips add nothing and after the crp there are still enough fish to get the point across.

I try to think of pictures in terms of shapes and colors. the subject can be anything if you get shape, line and color right. Cropping helps because it leaves only a bright diamond and some oblong fish.

At a minimum crop just above the bell handle tip to remove the OOF people from the image. This makes the main subject (the bright top of the block) stand out more