Icy Leaf

[wheelibin]

Hi

I'm very new to the world of photography and was pretty happy with this picture - I'd love to know what I could have done better though!

Thanks in advance
Jon

[jiminyClickit]

wheelbin, Welcome

No idea why this is uncommented-on by others, only why I left it alone this morning: a whole leaf, more diagonal, with a slight vignette to focus more attention on the whole leaf and frost, might be an attention-getter. Here the subjects are in a group, some lighter or darker than center one (main subject?). I looked around and found single natural objects are attention-getters. Think forest versus one old gnarled tree on a hillside.

This is a good photo. In a world filled with good photos.

[wulf]

Jiminy makes some good points. Another one to consider is depth of field. In this shot there are areas at the front and back that are blurry. Narrow DoF can work well if you are highlighting a subject but, for the present set up, I suspect it would be better if everything looked sharp.

Taking a look at your settings on Flickr, I see you had 1/160s shutter speed, f/6.3 and ISO 200. You could have tried stopping down the aperture, perhaps to f/11 or so and then compensating by increasing ISO and decreasing shutter speed (or use aperture priority mode to let the camera make some of the decisions).

Also, were you using a tripod? As subjects get closer and shutter speeds get slower it becomes more and more useful to have some kind of firm support to eliminate tiny movements showing up as camera shake.

Wulf

[wheelibin]

Thanks very much for you comments!

I didn't have a tripod at the time so that limited my options slightly, as you say I really should have tried playing around with the aperture though to see the different results that gave me.

I'll be investing in a tripod now and hopefully be posting some more pics soon!
Thanks again
Jon

[peeperita]

i think that jiminy's suggestion of a vignette would go a long way to improving this shot....it would not only set the focal point for the viewer by dimming the edges and brightening the main subject but, it would also disguise the narrow depth of field......

i love how you see things.....lovely image....

peeper

[wheelibin]

Hi peeper

Thanks for your feedback and kind words!

Please excuse my ignorance, but when you talk about a vignette, are you talking about an effect applied afterwards or some kind of filter on the camera?

Thanks
Jon

[wulf]

Vignetting refers to the border having a darker tone than the centre of the picture. It is sometimes caused naturally by defects in the lens or camera design or because, for example, you have stacked too many filters on the lens and the camera is now peering down a long tube.

However, it can also be a desireable characteristic, not least because it causes the eye to focus on brighter objects towards the centre of the image. It is quite easy to apply a vignetting effect afterwards. Perhaps someone has an example they can point you to?

Wulf

[peeperita]

i think wulf covered the description of a vignette well....the kind i referred to is done in editing....there are as many ways to apply one as there are to skin a cat......what i generally do is to create a new layer.....make a rectangular selection almost to the edges of the frame....select the inverse and feather it quite a bit....around 150 to start with....then i get my paint bucket and apply color.....usually something darker than the background......i then select a layer mode that suits me....most of the time it is either multiply or overlay......and lastly, reduce the opacity of my vignette to my taste.....i like it when it's not too noticable....

sometimes i don't explain myself very well and if i left you confused, please tell me....

thanks

peeper