Which picture do you prefer?

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#2, without a doubt. It's so clearly defined and balanced.

BTW, I wish I had a shred of ability to take photos such as these.

Good luck with the contest.

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The pot choice (green-colored glaze) recommends the contrasting berries (red) over the flowers (white). A much deeper-in-color 'black-green' pot would bring out the berries as more orange than red, and arguably be more suitable to display the white flowers. It could make your choice of preference harder, but arguably extend display.

Do you like the dark green background for the berries' image (or the bright blue background for the flowers' image)?

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It's probably because I am red-green colorblind, and do not experience the brightness of the berries as you do, but although I love the berries, I like the white flowers even better.
Oliver

The picture with the BERRIES LOOKS BEST TO ME !! The tree is very nice... good luck take care john

I like the flower picture due to the fact that the trunk is shown better and I like the background. If the picture with the berries had a better shown trunk and a lighter background that would be my favorite. Can you photoshop those issues?

Joe K in Mobile

magsterone wrote:I like the flower picture due to the fact that the trunk is shown better and I like the background.

Joe K in Mobile

Me too. Sure, the berries have more "bling" but I prefer the refined elegance of the flowers.

Impressive tree, I like #1 and how the white flowser pops off the blue background. I also like how more of the trunk is visible. But i'm no expert.

For a photography contest, the wider table used with the berries seems to be more in balance with the width of the bonsai than the smaller table used with the flowers. I vote for the berries.

I love the color of the berries but I think, overall, I really enjoy the lightness and potential of the blooms. The blooms make the overall composition, especially considering the powerful trunk, raise up from that trunk whereas the berries really weight down the image. Of course, the background color, lighting etc also have some bearing on all of this too.

This one.

Hi David,
good to see the tree made it back from Japan ok I vote berries because the picture is better quality - (the stand is crooked in flower picture, even though the stand is quite chipped in the berry picture you do not notice it so much). You say it is a competition....if the picture was taken in a proffessional photo studio it should be the photographers entry ? you may get disqualified if the picture is digitally 'tagged' with their identity.

good luck though, the apex is really nice now.

Cheers Marcus

Hello,
That was my first reaction, altering the pictures or make new ones.
The tables are not placed symmetrical, it works to occasional.
The lightning could be much better to get more 3d in the picture.
Sunip

Or this one. Why can your studio not do this?

UAU - Just put them side by side, what a diference!

Basic question - what are the judging criteria for the competition?

Specifically, 1. is it the quality of the tree that is being judged or the of the photo itself? 2. are there any conditions imposed on touching up photos in an editing programme like PS?

If it is the photo that is being judged, then while I prefer the tree in flower as a tree, I think the second photo is better as the placement of tree and table is better. The table is not right in the first pic. If you are allowed to enhance the photo with PS, then Walter's remodelling significantly improve both tree and photos.

Difficult call, but I'm erring towards photo 2 as your competition entry.

Good luck

Fiona