leaves around flower
I am a noob when it comes to taking pictures. I have very little understanding of aperture, shutter speed, light, focal point and the likes. I am confused as to which one to select to be creative. Why choose a different aperture except for the largest to keep the subject in focus and blur the background or for the smallest aperture to keep both foreground and background in focus. I have a film slr but gave up on it since it was expensive having blurred pictures developed. Hence, I bought a digital point and shoot camera with zoom and build in (automatic) creative features, years ago.
I am learning to frame and compose. I tried to get some ideas/photos from others and implement them.
With the attach picture, I am torn apart whether to completely blur the background (like upper left quadrant) or to have the leaves slightly blurred but not completely (like in the lower right quadrant). I somewhat prefer to have some of the leaves completely blurred and some more define in this case which seems to add to the whole composition rather than just completely focusing on the subject. Completely blurring the background seems to make the flower to be floating and it seems artificial. While if the leaves around it is somewhat blur/define, then it looks more natural. Is it about creativeness versus more natural looking without making the whole picture a clutter? Is it a matter of making the background not busy at all or is it about the whole composition?
I came across vignetting while reading but I have no clue on how to apply it - do one need a filter, is it a camera feature or technique? Could it have improve this picture?
1) What does the community think about blurring the background completely or not (composition wise)?
2) Regarding the subject,
2a) does anyone felt that petals are velvetty (soft and silky) or are they out of focus?
2b) How about the amount of light that hit the petals - does it seems to show some amount of shadow to detail the ruffles?
3) What is the reasoning why the flower seems to be floating? Is it the contrast?
Camera: Canon G2
ISO: 50
Aperture: f/2.2 (Aperture Priority selected)
Shutter speed: 1/40
Macro setting: On
Auto White Balance
Spot AE Point: Center
Metering Mode: Center-weighted Average
Sunny but this flower is located under a shadow
Flash: Off
Exposure: 0
Exposure adjustment: 0
PS
I am not sure if this belongs to composition, framing, wild life, or macro thread. But definitely, I would like it to be criticized.
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