Flower head

[sdjl]

So this is the first shot I've posted here, please be gentle

I got bored today whilst doing some work, so thought I'd try taking some photos of the flowers we have downstairs at the moment.
They were in a vase and I moved them into a room with a little more light.



I used a tripod and some off camera flash, to give a bit of shadow and more light to the flower head. I cropped the photo down tightly in Photoshop and adjusted the light levels, contrast and saturation slightly as well.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions!

David

[shellypain]

Hey David-
I love to shoot flowers...usually I use a 22. Oh no, that's not right.

I like this picture a lot but it isn't as sharply focused as it could be. Maybe you could have gotten closer and filled the frame with the flower so it wouldn't need as much cropping? Or taken it at an even higher resolution?
Getting that crispness is the key. I'm working on just that thing myself.

Nice flower!
Shelly

[sdjl]

Hi Shelly!

Crispness is one of the issues I have with taking some photos at the moment. I don't have a lense that I can get close enough with, so I used a telephoto zoom and set myself back from the flower a bit.

The image was taken at the largest jpg setting, I suppose I could have taken it in RAW and then exported it to a tif file, I may have gotten some more quality then!

David

[wulf]

If it wasn't sharp in the lens, then taking in RAW wouldn't have helped.

You could try applying some post-processing on the computer to try and improve the sharpness - it won't be perfect but might give the edges a bit more "zing".

Wulf

[sdjl]

Well I received a new lense as a gift for my birthday, so I thought I'd try your suggestion of getting in closer to the flower.
Here's my attempt this time round.



It's a bit wider angle, as the lense is smaller in focal length. It's definately a lot sharper than my previous photos.

[wulf]

Yes, that's sharper (and happy birthday)!

One thing you have done with this shot is to put the main subject in the horizontal centre of the frame. It would be worth trying it in different places (particularly, think "rule of thirds").

Once you have got a series of shots showing different placements of the main subject, you can the start to decide which ones work and which ones are less good.

Wulf

[sdjl]

That is true. The rule of thirds is something I always overlook and need to get into a habit of doing.