PLease give a noob some advice on my flower pic

[dawnron1]

Hello all,

I'm really learning alot from the vast amount of great info here on the forums. Here's my attempt at a macro shot using my new Rebel XT with the 18-55 kit lens, a tiny flower from a shrub in my back yard . I used the standard workflow in Photo Elements 4 and Neat Image. ISO 100, F5.6, shutter speed 1/100. Please tell me your thoughts, good and bad, as I'm eager to learn, and thanks!

Ronnie

[Gary Fairhead]

Exif data always helps when asking for input. Its nice to know the lens but other elementrs such as ISO. F stop and shutter speed will help. The image should also be bigger at 800K on the large side or roughly X 2 as big as posted so the viewer gets a better view.

Colors look good ....experiment with under esposing flowers to bring out more detail. This is something many photographers use with white flowers but the practice works well with colored flowers as well.

[sando]

It's a nice shot, especially being a 'noob' :)

I like the DoF isolating the pink flower, and the BG being green and drab helps draw the eye to the bright colours.

:)

[dawnron1]

Gary and sando,

Thanks very much! Just added the Exif info also ;)

Ronnie

[sando]

Ah, after viewing the exif provided, then I can offer a bit of a tip. :)

When doing cloe-up work like this, I personally would always stop down to open up the aperture all the way. This provides you with the narrowest DoF, further isolating the subject and will also give you a faster shuter speed, good for hand-holding Experiment yourself and see what you think. Sometimes a wider DoF can be good for showing the environment surrounding the flower, such as this (http://wayne-eddy.fotopic.net/p32900107.html) shot from Wayne_Eddy (as a great example). This is nice, to me, because it gives you a good view of the surrounding areas. :)

[cfcRebel]

Very nice shot from a noob. The image is sharp, flowers nicely composed, nice color balance, exposure is accurate(at least on my screen). One thing you might want to pay more attention is the background. It's good to blur the bg, which you did, to separate your subject from the bg, but try get a clean bg. In this case, the leaves were partially lit and covered with shadow. That makes the bg kind of busy and distracting IMVHO :). So, you could try change the camera angle and find a smooth/cleaner bg. For example, the first photo in this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=206730).
Hope you find that helpful. :)

[dawnron1]

Thanks for all the responses and helpful tips!

Ronnie