Would like a critique on this shot.

[dearis]

Hi there,

I was wondering if I can get an honest even brutal if necesary critique of this shot. It was wet this morning so I set up my lightbox and fired of a few shots.

I have begun using my macro flash and experimenting with it. The flash was set at 4:1 on this shot.

It is the budding flower of the Australian Kangaroo paw, when mature the flower is actually the very tip of the paw and you really need to strain to see it. When mature the buds/paws can me 200mm long.

Regards Darren

Exif infomation is 1/200sec, F/32, ISO-100, AV mode.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g151/dearis_photos/IMG_0705resize.jpg

[AirBrontosaurus]

Well, right off the bat it kind of hurts my eyes. Were these the original colors or did you PP them?

Also, f/32 is way too high for a macro shots. Lenses tend to lose detail (due to diffusion) at f/13 onwards, and f/32 will really wreak havoc with your sharpness.

Composition wise, it looks to be pretty well done. The subject is centered, but not distractingly so. It also looks like you did a good job of getting the whole bud in the frame.

I like the bluish gradient as a background. It doesn't look very natural (I'm not sure if you were going for that or not), but it accents the shot well (IMO, at least).

Overall, it is a good shot. You may well have represented the colors accurately (in that case WOW! That is one colorful plant), and I'm just not used to seeing it. I would recommend you stop up to around f/11 for your next series and see how you like it. You do lose a bit of DOF, but you gain a lot of sharpness, as well as the freedom to use less powerful light sources.

[dearis]

Thanks AB,

there was nothing done to the colour in PP this is the plant, they range from green through yellows and red, orange and strangely attractive the black. As for background it was too wet this morning (5.30am) to get anything natural from the garden so this had to do. This is only a budding bud the fully formed bud looks like a claw, but I wasn't happy with the shots I took of that.

I shot some at F/11 - F/16 but the DOF was lousy but with the F/11-16 I didn't use flash, I wonder if that will give better DOF.

I did not know lenses lost sharpness at F/32 is that the same at the other end like F/2.8? I apreciate that info.

I appreciate the honest critique it has helped me and given me something to try next shoot.

Regards Darren

[LordV]

As AB says you are losing way too much sharpness at F32, I'd use F13 max and if needed perhaps try focus stacking to increase the DOF (tutorial here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=1113413#post1113413 ). Think I'd also try natural light even at 4:1 power ratio the lighting still looks a bit flat to me.
Brian V.

[dearis]

Hi LordV,

thanks for the comments, is image stacking a way to create HDR images? or is that a different thing? I love the idea to get greater DOF. I will give this a go and PM you when I do. Also I love the iris shot, beautiful!

Thankyou

Regards Darren