Does the flower pop?

[jasony8]

I took this photo in the HK wetland park, posted some more shots on the SYS section but unfortunately no one commented Maybe it was the overall quality of the photo, thought i would try putting it onto this critique section

Do you guys think that the colours on the water lily pop out in the photo? Do you think that the contrast between the water and the flower is big enough? Lastly I find the brown leave on the left of the flower distracting, do you guys think so?

Any other critiques/suggestions are also appreciated



Exif data:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Exposure: 1/5000 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

Thanks for looking!
Link to entire set: Hong Kong Wetland Park (20/3/10) - a set on Flickr
- Comments appreciated -

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by jasony8

I took this photo in the HK wetland park, posted some more shots on the SYS section but unfortunately no one commented Maybe it was the overall quality of the photo, thought i would try putting it onto this critique section

Nice capture!

Originally Posted by jasony8

Do you guys think that the colours on the water lily pop out in the photo?

Not exactly. Green is the complementary color.

Originally Posted by jasony8

Do you think that the contrast between the water and the flower is big enough?

I lower the brightness and contrast in the sample (for illustration only). Plus a golden spiral crop and replace brown leave color.

Originally Posted by jasony8

Lastly I find the brown leave on the left of the flower distracting, do you guys think so?

Yes. Finding the right background is just as important as the subject selection. Attention to details.

[jasony8]

Thanks for the detailed comments!!! I will do some research on the golden spiral crop

THANKS!

[NikD300]

Hi I am new to this cropping mechanism using a specific model.

Hi LoveDSLR, can you please help me understand this?

I saw few crop styles on DPS ...
- Like mentioned above, Golden Spiral Crop - On what basis someone should pick this crop style?

- I also saw someone else using Folding Gate (????) crop style. On what basis we should choose this over golden spiral style?

Really appreciate your input.

Regards,
NikD

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by NikD300

I saw few crop styles on DPS ...
- Like mentioned above, Golden Spiral Crop - On what basis someone should pick this crop style?

It depends on the photo. The Golden Spiral here is to lead the eye to the flower. I use it mainly as a communication aid.

You can start checking out these links.
Divine proportion the easy way - golden section Photoshop plugin
Golden Section and Rule of Thirds (Golden Mean, Golden Ratio, Golden Spiral, Golden Proportion, Golden Triangles).
Golden Mean, Golden Rectangle, Golden Spiral