Posted by Mike Hall on January 20, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I like it, but for me the house shadow distracts me. I would like it cropped like this or off centered. Just my opinion.
Posted by Matt McClellan on January 20, 2010 at 11:11 PM
I agree with your thoughts on the house shadow. I like the crop but the flower is a little too close to centered. Perhaps cropping so the flower is in the bottom left third a little more and maybe rotate it clockwise a bit to get a little more diagonal line through the frame...just a thought.
Posted by Darren Huski on January 21, 2010 at 5:47 AM
I think you are onto something. I think I'd crop the right side upto the shadows from the grass. Then crop the house shadow at the top as Mike suggests.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on January 21, 2010 at 12:06 PM
Nice subject Justin. This subject has a lot of potential.
Here's what I would suggest for the next time you're presented with this opportunity. A widely accepted approach for capturing flora portraits of a single bloom is to isolate the bloom against a uniform out of focus background.
In this example you might have used your 70-300 zoom set at 300 mm with an aperture of say f/4 to create a shallow dof. Keeping the petals parallel to your sensor (plane of focus parallel) you could have rendered the bloom in sharp focus and turned the background into a pleasant oof green. Then, compose your frame so your bloom is in a rule of thirds power point with a hint of the stem showing diagonally and you'll have a winner!
Make sure to stop by the Flora Forum to see some amazing flower imagery. It's a great place to learn how others approach the subject. Great start, looking forward to seeing more flower images from you.
Discussion
4 repliesLarger version here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinger/3924126453/sizes/l/in/set-72157603880002121/
Here's what I would suggest for the next time you're presented with this opportunity. A widely accepted approach for capturing flora portraits of a single bloom is to isolate the bloom against a uniform out of focus background.
In this example you might have used your 70-300 zoom set at 300 mm with an aperture of say f/4 to create a shallow dof. Keeping the petals parallel to your sensor (plane of focus parallel) you could have rendered the bloom in sharp focus and turned the background into a pleasant oof green. Then, compose your frame so your bloom is in a rule of thirds power point with a hint of the stem showing diagonally and you'll have a winner!
Make sure to stop by the Flora Forum to see some amazing flower imagery. It's a great place to learn how others approach the subject. Great start, looking forward to seeing more flower images from you.