too much going on?

[mapgirl]

I've been trying to pay more attention to the background in my macros. With this one, I wanted to know if you think the other branches and buds add to the overall composition or just take away from the central subject of the flower. And if it does seem busy rather than attractive or interesting, does anyone know how I could use PP to make the flower and its branch even more prominent? Thanks!



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[RichardTaylor]

The other branches & buds do distract from the flower.

(1) Crop out all the unwanted distractions (keep just the bottom left hand side of the picture). However before you do that you may want to clone out the bright area adjacent to the flower

[Dodgeinart]

Hey there mapgirl,
I agree there is too much going on. Personally I would just re-shoot, it is much harder to ps the branches and get this shot the way I think you have envisioned. Isolate one branch, or bud and try to make it the brightest object in the scene, or blur the bg significantly enough to achieve that effect.
If you want to check out photos of what you have envisioned and try to replicate them, ask questions of peoples photos you'd be amazed that most people are more than willing to share their secrets.

[rengles]

Hi mapgirl,

I find the background distracting, too, I think because some parts of the background are much brighter than the flower itself.

You could try cropping in closer to the flower and blurring the background..otherwise maybe retake with a darker background.

I do love the colors--hope the flowers are still out for you to take some more shots!

[mapgirl]

Thank you all for your helpful comments. This actually is a crop and I did blur the background a bit, but I was thinking it all seemed too much. Thanks for confirming. If the bees will let me close enough to set up my tripod, the whole tree is in flower right now. I'll start by opening up a few stops to blur more of the background and focus in tighter.

thanks again!

[photo]

Hey there! I like the photo but agree there is distractions in the background. Maybe you could just crop it a bit, select the background and put a Gaussian blur on it. Then you could clone out distracting the remaining distracting areas.

[LeeR]

I disagree with those who feel there is too much going on here. To be more exact, I don't think that is where the problem lies. The problem is that you have a strong line going right through the flower you are trying to draw our attention to. I love the flower and the bud but there is too much distraction immediately adjacent to them. By positioning yourself a bit better you should be able to find a place where those two elements have an even and uninterupted background (preferably dark) that will help us focus on the element you want us to see. That done, the rest of the image will not be a distraction.

[mguerra]

The flower is facing away from us, the photo is of the underside. You could pick a flower directly facing the camera, or turn this stem around and fix it in position with this flower facing head on. That alone would dramatically enhance the flower and de-emphasize the other extraneous elements. They would still be there, but less attention grabbing. From my vast experience of one week of photography!

[MSidPhoto]

Hmm.....nice shot.
But the background is too distracting. Try to crop it off. You could also increase the sharpness and the clarity of your main subject to make it look more prominent.
Good luck.

[JFSanders]

Originally Posted by mapgirl

Thank you all for your helpful comments. This actually is a crop and I did blur the background a bit, but I was thinking it all seemed too much. Thanks for confirming. If the bees will let me close enough to set up my tripod, the whole tree is in flower right now. I'll start by opening up a few stops to blur more of the background and focus in tighter.

thanks again!

Move your camera so that the white high lights are not behind your subject. If that means you have to get a ladder and shoot from above then do that. If your background is the same colors/brightness as the subject you will lose the subject in the background. I would recompose the shot and reshoot several frames each time adjusting DOF and exposure settings to see which combination gave me the best possible treatment of the subject. And don't worry about the bees they won't bother you unless they are Africanized...