A purple lily

Gallery: FloraPosted July 25, 20041,065 views6 comments

I've recently been putting a lot of effort into getting my flower pictures to stand out, but often enough they just look a bit plain.
But with this picture I feel I finally got closer to the essence of flora photography.

This is a lily from my parents' backyard, but I can't really identify it. I really should try and learn.

EOS 300D, 50mm F 1.8 lens, with 12 mm of extensions
Aperture set to make the leaves sharp, but to get the OOF in the backround.
Levels and USM in photoshop.

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Keith Anderson on July 25, 2004 at 7:41 AM

I never have really liked these type of images, not saying this isn;t nice and its' very well done but they always seem to look as if the flower has been placed onto the background. I would prefer a little more DOF to show the stem a little to show where the flower is coming from. my opinion anyway.

oh one thing though the comment

"with this picture I feel I finally got closer to the essence of flora photography."

What is the essence of flora photography?

Registered on November 1, 2003, 72 Posts, 258 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Ross on July 25, 2004 at 8:21 AM

Plenty of detail in the petals here and a pleasing b/g and nice even lighting. I too think a touch more dof would be helpful, it would define the stem a bit better, but also provide sharpness at the base of the trumpet of the flower.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 403 Posts, 2729 Comments

Comment posted by Kalle Lintinen on July 25, 2004 at 9:17 AM

The reason there's not too much DOF has also to do with my not having a macro lens which affects the amount of light available (sort of). I usually try to take these pesky low angle shots handheld so I really can't use as slow speeds as I should.

And the bit about the essence of flora photography wasn't meant to be taken that seriously. It was basically a statement that I thought people would actually begin to enjoy looking at my pictures ;)

Registered on December 18, 2003, 193 Posts, 200 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Anderson on July 25, 2004 at 4:30 PM

My comment also wasn't supposed to be taken to seriously.

And yes I did enjoy looking at this one, it is very nice.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 72 Posts, 258 Comments

Comment posted by Ned Fenimore on July 29, 2004 at 12:31 AM

This is really beautiful - and the DOF is perfect.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 467 Posts, 2803 Comments

Comment posted by Skip Layman on August 4, 2004 at 2:31 PM

I like the selective DOF in this shot. BTW, it is a bellflower, not a lily.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 558 Posts, 1704 Comments