Lily belle

[lissykeeper]

I'm not sure this is a true macro. I took it with my 50mm 1.8. I'm not much of a flower person. I love them, think they are beautiful and manage to sucessfully kill every plant I get. Fortunatly for me, the people who lived in my home before me loved flowers. I have these little suprises show up in my backyard. Since I'm rarely in my backyard, they manage to live. LOL! Anyway, I'm relatively pleased with this photo for a first try. I took about 50 with different settings and at different angles and this is my favorite. It was also the first one I took. I'm rambling...

My question specifically is this...Should I have decreased my aperture to make the front on the petals more focused? And are the little pistons and stamins(?) sharp enough? While were at it, what about the light and exposure? Is it to dark? I had trouble getting it exposed without overexposing. Any critique welcomed, embraced, ....



I did crop it a little and added a vignette. I know some people hate them, but this photo just looked incomplete without it.

Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Thanks for looking and have a happy day.

[subrataofkris]

I would definitely like to increate the DOF and bring the left petal and the inner part in focus.
The shot is not dark, but there is no light to create contrasts either. Looks like a very cloudy day.

[lissykeeper]

Subrata-- Thanks for the comment and advice. It was a little cloudy, but the lack of light comes from my location. I neglected to mention that my "backyard" is really 4 acres of woods. Even though the sun was shinning some, it was pretty dark down under those trees. So, what could I do in this situation to add more light? I have an external flash, but I wouldn't have anything to bounce it off unless I enlisted my daughter to assist.

[lputman]

A flashlight that you can position to provide some light for the scene might work. It's a constant light source that you can move around.

Maybe a step back would work, remember that particular petal is closer to the camera than the others. Decreasing the aperture might work too.

[peeperita]

good presentation......and loads of questions....

yes, i think your depth of field could have been wider to get the whole of the flower in focus......and yes, your stamen things are nice and sharp....

to my eye your exposure is good and that cloudy day worked to your advantage on such a light colored flower....you did well controlling your whites....no, it is not too dark on my monitor.....

the crop feels awkward, but i honestly don't have any suggestions that might improve it other than to change your perspective to a higher angle so that the flower doesn't flatten out on the bottom......

and lastly, your vignette is what vignettes are supposed to be.....barely noticable and providing more focus on the subject itself....

thanks for the offering

peeper

[subrataofkris]

Originally Posted by lissykeeper

Subrata-- Thanks for the comment and advice. It was a little cloudy, but the lack of light comes from my location. I neglected to mention that my "backyard" is really 4 acres of woods. Even though the sun was shinning some, it was pretty dark down under those trees. So, what could I do in this situation to add more light? I have an external flash, but I wouldn't have anything to bounce it off unless I enlisted my daughter to assist.

Since you have an external flash, you can try wrapping a white cloth round the flash head, you can also try off camera flash if you have the options or use some white sheets to bounce off even the natural ambient light, but all the time you have to be very careful not to overexpose the petals. As peeperita said, you have controlled your whites quite nicely.
4 acres od woods as a backyard, wow! I wish I had one.

[lissykeeper]

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments! As far as the weird crop, this flower grew funny. Instead or growing upward and opening upward, it was opening to the side. I tried getting some from a higher angle, but it just resulting in a weird looking yellow shape. I will try both the flashlight idea and a little off camera flash if one pops up closer to my house. Those 4 acres are beautiful, but all down hill. I really don't want to lug all my equipment back up that steep slope!

By the way, it made a pretty wallpaper for my computer. Very simple, so its not hard to find my icons.