Iris Macro

[Teewinot]

After the rains last night, my flowers had lovely droplets on them this morning. I quickly went out and shot an iris for a few minutes. I was going for minimal depth of field (focusing on the part of the petal with 'teeth'), but wish it could have been a pinch sharper (I didn't use a tripod). What do you think?



EXIF data
Camera: Olympus C8080 (not an SLR)
Aperture: f/3.2
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec.
ISO: 50
White Balance: Auto
Focus: Manual
Focal Length: 23.4 mm

Post Processing
Crop
Slight contrast increase
Unsharp mask

Thanks for looking!

[stevesutt89]

Agreed it could be sharper. The other thing here is that to my eyes there are two conficting subjects: the droplets on the leaf (a fascinating subject on its own) and the slighly soft flower.

[therumsgone]

I agree with the comment about conflicting points of interest, the droplets are so great that my eye goes away from the flower. I love the color though, and I do think it's good image.

[Todd]

I dont know much about photography (yet) but I do know cool and THAT is COOL. I like it!

[clockdoc]

Nice color and I like the shot even if it isn't as sharp as you would have liked it. The drops do compete for attention and may be better cropped out.

[Teewinot]

stevesutt89, you have no idea how much I want to achieve tack sharp in my macro photos! It's really a matter of me just lugging out the tripod...and perhaps upgrading my camera?? Thanks for your insight on the "second subject." I see how that can compete for attention.

therumsgone, thanks also for pointing out that your eye leaves the flower to look at the droplets. I was hoping I could get a shot where there were nice droplets on the flower, but by that point in the morning, most the good droplets left were just on the leaves.

Todd, thanks so much for your encouraging words! If you think you don't know much about photography, then you've come to the right place (DPS)!

clockdoc, thanks for "thirding" the opinion about the competing water droplets. I will try different crops. I also have more shots of different views, but I just liked this one the best. Likely my eyes saw both subjects and thought "wow, 2 cool things in one photo!" but I never thought that having such a set-up would cause subject competition. Always learning here on DPS...I love it!