Reflections on a special day (Still life: flowers)

[BexJarratt]

Hi,

This is my first time posting for crit on the forum. I've had my camera/ been photographing for about 3 months and I'm still playing/ practising, but not as hard as I should.

I would like some feedback on the photo I recently submitted for the Still life: flowers assignment. My idea was to photograph them on a dark reflective surface (polished granite chopping board) and to try to emphasise the texture of the dried roses as contrast. Overall, I'm quite happy with this.



Camera Samsung NX5
Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

I would like general feedback on the lighting, because this was my first foray into off camera flash, and its all manual setting, so I'm not sure I'm getting it right.

Also does the depth of field both you? The stems are out of focus at the front of the image, but the background is in focus.

I think some of the highlights on some of the petals are a little blown, does this bother you?

Here is the link to the original (sooc) pre-edit | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I fixed the missing bit of base, did a bit of levels, contrast mask (I think) and sharpen. Does this sound right for this image.

Please, any advice would be gratefully recieved.

Thanks

Bex

[BexJarratt]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[BexJarratt]

90 views and no comments...

It's either boring, hopeless or perfect; and I'm pretty darn sure it's not the last one.

Please, be brutal, I'm not going to improve if you don't say it as it is!

[windrider86]

It's a great concept. One I use often. First thing I noticed is the background. It cuts your image almost in half. Try bringing the roses further down the mirror so you dont see a background at all. Also when placing the roses, try placing the ends of the stems together so you have leading lines that start in the same place.
Make sure your mirror is clean, I notice specs on it

[BCampbell]

Everything Windrider said.

You are right, the leaves being out of focus is distracting. Well, it's the combination of them being out of focus and being where they are.

But overall this lighting is harsh and horrible. You can start with the shadows on the background. It looks like you have the light coming from camera left, when I would think you'd want to strat at camera right since that's the way the leftmost rose is "facing". That will help reduce the shadows within the petals. But it's still really harsh. Try some diffusion, and maybe for your first shot don't use such a reflective surface, that's going to complicate things.

But, even if you had nailed the lighting, I don't find much to like about the composition or the subject. There's a lot of empty space and no clear path for the eye to follow. The composition just overall feels "dead", which I guess might be ironical for some dead flowers.

[BexJarratt]

Thank you both very much for taking the time to comment.

Windrider - I think the specks are part of the make-up of the granite I was using, I hadn't considered that this would make it look dusty/ dirty, but of course, unless you know what it is you're not going to know that. A valuable lesson learned. Moving the roses down, it's so obvious when you say it like that.

BCampbell - thanks for the info on lighting position. I really need to study this. I guess it totally shows in this image that I haven't the foggiest which way it should be pointing. A pointer to any clear book/ website with lots of diagrams would be greatly appreciated.

Bex

[Sterling]

The lighting looks very harsh with a lot of burned out highlights. The white background wall doesn't look good. The shadows say, "pop-up flash" despite you claiming off-camera flash.

[BCampbell]

If you want to do off-camera flash the Strobist website is really probably the best place to start. Go through the 101 and 102 "courses".

That said, I don't know a lot about lighting, just enough to stay away from it mostly.