Bunch of flowers

[midhunlalg]

Dear folks, help me to improve the composition.
I am new to photography. I just captured bunch of flowers in full zomm using my zoom lens.

Looking forward for your comments..

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by midhunlalg

Dear folks, help me to improve the composition.
I am new to photography. I just captured bunch of flowers in full zomm using my zoom lens.

Looking forward for your comments..

Hi midhunlaig, thanks for brightening my day with these flowers! You have a nice sort of "layering" effect with the colorful purple flowers against the blurred tree in the background. I like it.

More generally, there is actually a list of "rules" for all of the areas of the form that you should read. It's been a while since I've read the one for this particular section, but all of the critique sections ask that you supply data about how you took the shot because that will enable the rest of us to better understand what you did and offer more constructive ideas for improvement.

These typically include your aperture (f/number), shutter speed, ISO setting, type of camera and lens, etc. You may be shooting on "Auto", but if you look check your manual, you can probably figure out how to ascertain this information. Maybe you could try to find it and post it right here in your thread!

Thanks for your post.

[midhunlalg]

Hi John,

Thanks for directing in right direction. I will post the EXIF data. I have captured the image in Aperture Priority mode.

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 85 mm
Focal Length 84.8 mm
ISO Speed 250

Do u feel that image is not sharp? I felt like image is not enough sharp.

Cheers,

[midhunlalg]

The lens I have used is Nikor 18-105mm VR lens

[midhunlalg]

Hi John,

Please share your thoughts on the image.

Thanks,
Midhun

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by midhunlalg

Hi John,

Thanks for directing in right direction. I will post the EXIF data. I have captured the image in Aperture Priority mode.

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 85 mm
Focal Length 84.8 mm
ISO Speed 250

Do u feel that image is not sharp? I felt like image is not enough sharp.

Cheers,

Hi midhunlalg. I like the image very much and I really don't see what mean by lack of sharpness. I think it does a good job of "layering" in showing the subject in sharp focus agains the tree background, a contrast in color too.

Not familiar with this lens, but if you could have perhaps further reduced your f/number letting more light in, compensating by equivalent decrease in exposure time; for example going to f/4 and 1/500 s would give you the same exposure, but it might have further improved the "bokeh" of the blurred background, making it even less distinguishable as a tree and leaves and more like a greenish blur. That is nice as is, but you might have experimented with it possibly.

The other thing that might have helped is moving closer to the subject so as to increase the ratio of the distance between the distance to the purple flowers and the camera relative to that between the flowers and the tree background. That may have meant going, say to a 50 mm focus, and when you go to lower focal lengths, in many lenses, you can at the same time reduce your f/number increasing the diameter of the aperture which yet again benefits reduced depth of field and less sharpness in the background.

So I like this image, but I would also have liked to see what it might have been if the tree background had been even more blurred. How to do that would be to shoot the flowers closer to the camera to accentuate the difference between flowers to camera versus flowers to background, and at the same time trying to open up the aperture which means reducing the f/number.

The thing to do, I think, is experiment with the parameters of distance-to-subect versus distanct of background, aperture size, and shutter speed. And then, rather than just trying to pick out your favorite, trying to understand why each thing you did had the effect it had.

Maybe your lens is one of those expensive ones that can shoot at f/2.8 throughout the entire focal length range. In that case, you definitely would have benefitted from getting closer, reducing your focal length, opening up your aperture and compensating with faster shutter speed. And by the way, I would say always shoot at the lowest ISO you can under the circumstances, but cause as you go up in ISO, noise increases and quality decreases. But this normally doesn't become at all important or noticible under ISO 800.

Hope this helps. Let me know if anything is unclear.