What’s Your Preference?

bigone5500 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-29-2011, 01:31 AM

I posted this originally in the wrong forum...so here it is...again...

I'd like some criticism on this. I processed it with Lightroom 3. I brightened it up, increased the saturation and contrast among other things.

I took this with a D60. Here is the Exif data:

ISO 100
No flash
1/125 shutter
f/5.6 aperture
Focal length 55mm

I like the way the colors look but I'm thinking they are a little too saturated possibly.

How would you guys have done this?

bigone5500 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-30-2011, 10:48 PM

Anyone????

RichardTaylor · #3 (**permalink**) 03-30-2011, 11:04 PM

Technically:
The colours look fine to me.
Exposure & focus is ok

Aesthetics:
It doesn't really grab me with its centred composition, flat lighting that really isn't creating any texture or slight shadow, and "standard "looking down from the top" view point.

Maybe shooting from a bit lower and having a more side on view to the stamens would help.

dlambert · #4 (**permalink**) 03-30-2011, 11:41 PM

It would be nice to see a little more detail in the petals -- Richard's suggestions would be an excellent place to start.

chicagojohn · #5 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlambert

It would be nice to see a little more detail in the petals -- Richard's suggestions would be an excellent place to start.

If you look at the petals of the flower, the central subject, you'll note they are not in sharp focus in some areas. I think this may largely be due to a phenomenon called "depth of field" or DoF.

The image, while perhaps deficient in some other areas, would benefit substantially if the entire subject, the dogwood flower, were in sharp focus. The primary factor that determines depth of field, the depth to which the image focus is acceptable to the viewer, is aperture. At f/5.6, I am guessing that range is about 2-3 mm. If you were to stop down to f/22, a difference of four stops, -4EV, then you would probably be at 6-9 mm, and more of the petals would be in sharp focus.

In order to make that transition of 5.6 to 22, the steps being 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22; four steps each of which cuts the light falling upon the sensor in half, you have to compensate in exposure in the other two areas, ISO (which is in digital amplification) and shutter speed.

In shutter speed, you are now at 1/125. It would be easy to achieve clarity hand held at 1/60, somewhat less easy at 1/30 but possible especially with antishake. But let's say you pick up one stop, 1EV by going to 1/60. There is certainly no advantage when shooting a flower in going to 1/125 s unless the flower is blowing in the wind or is growing extremely fast!

So that will double the light falling on the sensor, and that means you have picked up one stop of the four you will need to make up for the four you lost in going from f/5.6 to f/22.

The next three can easily be picked up in amplification, going from ISO 100, 200, 400 to 800. Each of these steps doubles the apparent light and thus contributes one stop or 1 EV. Therefore you now have four EV total to make up for the change in f/number from 5.6 to 22 to get more depth of field.

The thing you have to watch in ISO is that as you amplify, you also amplify noise, which will inevitably show up as "speckle". But 800 should not be a problem for most DSLR's, compact cameras may be another matter.

So, in summary, (having writtenn this in more detail previously and it having been deleted by the moderators in transferring this, apparently), I would have also tried this shot at f/22, ISO 800, and 1/60 s. If that were to decrease the nice bokeh or blurring of the background, you could decrease that change by trying something like f/16, ISO 400 and 1/60.

Anyway, this is the second time I've tryed to write this so we'll see of the moderators mangage to lose it yet again.

bigone5500 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 07:08 AM

Thanks for re-writing this chicagojohn. I had originally posted this in the wrong forum and therefore put it here and deleted the original message. Your reply has shed a great deal of light on what I was trying to accomplish here. I have a better understanding of how aperture and ISO work together so I can try to get better shots. I too am unhappy with the way the petals are just a smudge of white color and have no texture to them. I took this photo when the wind was blowing so I had to hold the camera with one hand and the branch with my other. I waited until the wind died down some then took the shot. This was at about 5:30 pm CST and the sun was shining just about directly at it.