What to focus on?

[ajm057]

I tried a series of real close-up shots of a Lily and am challenged to decide which of the following is a better composition. My preference is the 2nd with only the tip of style, rather than the stamen, in focus. However, the first image has to my eye a more dramtic effect.

I would be grateful for your views.

Shot with Nikon D3X, 105mm f/2.8 and 35mm exn tube f/22, Iso 125 lit with 2 Nikon SB-900 through soft boxes and back lit with reflectors.

[olgabe]

my 2 cents - neither of these compositions is ideal because there are too many spots that are in focus and they are thrown all over the frame. In the first one 3 orange blobs (pardom my lack of knowledge of flower elements!!) are competing in different parts of the frame. The second one, the whitish blob is in focus, and it would be the focal point just fine, if a part of the orange one did not fall into focus field - probably by mistake.. so my eye does not know what to focus on...

I'd reposition the camera arounf the flower so that you only have one purposeful element in focus. Hope this helps! And the colors are absolutely lovely by the way!

Getting depth of field right in macro is a big pain... especially with flowers that are still alive and like to move in the wind

[ajm057]

Thanks for the comment - I have blurred out the focus on the stamen on the 2ns shot. Does this improve the image?