Rose Petal Macro - Composition and other ?'s

[weapher]

I am looking for some help with composition and other technical aspects.

I shot this raw and did no editing other than cropping for requirements and convert to jpeg.. It was a bunch of foliage blowing around that I piled up to make this shot. I was trying to show the veins in the petal and thought the brown leaves gave good contrast.

Appreciate any feedback.
Thanks

From My Shots

Camera Sony -NEX5
f/22
1/400
iso-800
focal length 55mm
no flash

[weapher]

Actually I have not cropped... I scaled to size.

[Lolkat]

I feel like it is an interesting shot and I like the transparency of the petal. But, the shadow of the leaf(?) under it is distracting. Maybe you could move the petal to another area with a clean background, or maybe hold it up to the sky etc... And don't forget about the rule of thirds (although this can be broken strategically sometimes). hope this helps!

[weapher]

Thanks for looking at it Lolkat. I understand the the rule of thirds, how do you think I could have applied it here to improve composition? After reading the DPS article on Five reasons to love the square format I almost cropped it to a square.

[Lolkat]

you could do a square crop if most of the petal is filling the frame, but if you're going to leave some of the background in the photo to give it context, I would try to place the petal in either the left or right 1/3 of the frame. But this is just my opinion

[judicator]

It needs cropping, either take out the distracting background or cut out either the left or right like Lolkat said. This shot doesn't really work for me...i like the idea but the dark bottom and background don't mix with the rose petal in my opinion

[kb93]

Originally Posted by weapher

I am looking for some help with composition and other technical aspects.

I shot this raw and did no editing other than cropping for requirements and convert to jpeg.. It was a bunch of foliage blowing around that I piled up to make this shot. I was trying to show the veins in the petal and thought the brown leaves gave good contrast.

Appreciate any feedback.
Thanks


Camera Sony -NEX5
f/22
1/400
iso-800
focal length 55mm
no flash

I love the transparency of the petal and the texture but the leaf looks too dark for me.

[KristaLGHT]

I think I don't like the grass or the leaves. Neither are a "natural setting" to me. I agree with the rose petal looking really neat but the rest of it doesn't work.

[weapher]

Thank you for all the input. Very helpful.

Keith

[drmanubmengi]

crop out the leaf,shadow.