Gerberas - dappled or plain background!?

[Jill H]

Hi everyone, I take a lot of flower shots, mostly wildflowers "in-situ" but also roses and other flowers in my garden. I am starting to look at different angles and ways of doing things and perfecting my own style.

My question about the attached photos of a gerbera in my garden is - Do you prefer the mottled background (which is basically background plants in my garden) or the second photo where I have actually laid a piece of black card behind the plant. Sorry about the midday sun! I used lots of different angles, but decided on this one in the end.

I have also tried dabbling a bit with a set up shot of gerberas inside the house with a black background and glass underneath - but I can only post two photos here. I was happy with the results, and might want to do some more when I get around to making a light box!

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks in advance for your comments.

with garden background -

From Life Images by Jill

with black card background - which has turned greyish because of the sunlight bouncing off it.

From Life Images by Jill

I've taken these with my trusty Canon Power Shot Pro1 set to super macro F3.2

[sybren]

It's not really a fair comparison. The angle and the lighting of the two photos is quite different, so the preference for one or the other can't be accredited to just the different background. Having said that, I like the garden background better - it's more natural and colourful than the mucky grey.

[Jill H]

actually one photo was taken at 2.28pm and the other at 2.29pm - so not sure what happened to the lighting - certainly looks different.

[sybren]

Seems to me a cloud got in the way.

[CassA]

i vote for the first one, definetely!

[Sabrina]

Jill, What a lovely flower you have in your garden. I prefer the first photo with the garden background.

[lputman]

First one for me too, it looks so beautiful and happy in the natural environment.

[peeperita]

i'll vote for the second one......the light is softer on the flower.....although, i do prefer the more natural look of the dappled green background....

peeper

[Jill H]

thanks everyone for your comments. I appreciate the feedback.