A Single Iris

[heartfeltgreetings]

I took the plunge last weekend and purchased a Nikon D90! My camera previous to the D90 was the D40. Yesterday I went out into the yard and started taking pics of all of my flowers in the garden. This shot is one of my favorites, but I thought I'd share it here to see if I could get some constructive feedback on my focus, composition, settings, etc, perhaps so I can do a better job next time. There is a bigger learning curve to the D90 than I thought there was going to be!

EXIF data: 50mm/1.4 lens, 200 ISO, 1/160 sec, f/5.0

[Laurenbiz]

Are you sure this was f/5.0? The backgrounds seems too focused for any f/5.0 I'm familiar with.

My only critique is that the purple petals are really the focal point in the photo here, but they take up such a small part of the frame against the busy background. So, try the shot again, and get much closer to the flower! :-)

[heartfeltgreetings]

Originally Posted by Laurenbiz

Are you sure this was f/5.0? The backgrounds seems too focused for any f/5.0 I'm familiar with.

My only critique is that the purple petals are really the focal point in the photo here, but they take up such a small part of the frame against the busy background. So, try the shot again, and get much closer to the flower! :-)

I went back and checked the EXIF info again, and indeed it was f/5.0. I did take many pics of the iris that day, I've attached another one, closer up like you had recommended. The only thing I did to the photo was give it a boost of color in PSE. The EXIF data for this photo is: 50mm, ISO 200, 1/500 sec, f/3.5....

The Nikon D90 I bought from my local camera store was a refurbished one. Do you think there might be something wrong with it's metering? I have been having fits with it a bit, so it was something I've been wondering since I bought it. I thought it was just me getting my setting confused. It seems like the meter is always telling me I'm underexposed dramatically. I'm definitely an amateur, so any insight you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!