good picture yes or no?

My honest critique:

The composition is lacking and the highlights are blown. It's also a little too soft.

What I would do:

Shoot the beans from a different angle and aperture, watch my highlights in bright sun and sharpen things a little. No need to have such a plant "soft" it's not a model with wrinkles.

i appreciate the advice but:
1. my camera was a 3 megapixel clunker that was difficult to use
2. its doubtful i'll ever be in costa rica again so i probably wont be taking this shot from a different angle.
3. and i dont no how to make it "not soft" (sharp?)

There's a lot to be said about good optics. If you start with bad optics which a "clunker" as you put it, likely has then perhaps you won't be able to do much. Such a camera you mention reminds me of a Holga and those definitely have their time and place but probably not in this type of photo.

Photography, being a constant learning process (at least for me) is something where I often take a look back at photos and see what I would change or sometimes I think about what I would do if I were there again. Sometimes I want to go back to an area with the knowledge I now have. That said it's good to know what to do the next time such an opportunity presents itself.

The softness in this photo could have been from you positioning the camera too close and thus exceeding the minimum focus distance capable by the camera you used. It's reminiscent of a major crop job on a telephoto shoot too. So without knowing specifics of how you shot it I can only deconstruct it ... this much.

This post was edited by Solarves on Nov 22 2009 01:47pm

Quit making excuses, accept the good criticism that was given to you.

This post was edited by Veilside on Nov 22 2009 03:32pm