Garden Outing - C&C Please

[kate08]

First time trying some close-up plant shots, would love some feedback...

[chrisu002]

they ar boring nothing interesting to look at. other than that the first one seems OOF and the subject is overexposed, the second one is sharp but the bright spot at top of the bud is disstracting

[Robert_Lay]

Not bad for macro work - at least the background is well blurred. Would probably get more raves were it an orchid. Orchids usually get better reviews:)

[justjoem]

The color and bokeh are nice in both pictures. Close up pictures such as these are difficult because of very shallow depth of field. In both pictures a major portion of the subject is in focus, but not all. In the first picture notice that the stem and the back of the bud are not in focus. This shot was done at 240mm, f/5.6, ISO 200, and 1/400th second. This is an excellent setting for a hand held shot. Using a tripod you could increase the f/stop to f/11 to f/13 and have the whole subject in focus. Having the whole subject in focus will make it “pop out” more from the unfocused background. Also, don’t be afraid to use a little fill flash. Using a little fill flash on outdoor close up photography will fill in the dark shadows and decrease the blown out highlights as in subjects like the second picture. It will also make the background go darker and allow a higher f/stop and therefore more depth of field.

[tonydee]

Second one's quite charming... I like the more varied background palette: pinks, yellows, greens, black, brown. Great how the light and dark bands are in opposition to those on the subject. Main thing I'm nonplussed by with these kind of shots is just the bare stem emerging from the bottom... can make the subject seem quite unrelated to the background... free floating or at worse pasted on. I've got no idea what kind of plant that is, but it's a pity it doesn't have a few leaves around the stem to allow the DOF to soften the transition to the focused depth and out towards the background. Even a few pieces of long grass or something would help. Strangely, I do feel that showing multiple images with the same issue does make it more acceptable... it becomes a unifying quirk, linking the images... but no reason they couldn't both address the issue. First picture's ok, but lacks the additional strengths mentioned re #2.

Cheers, Tony

[kate08]

Thanks for the feedback! Helpful to get the tips on how to improve.

justjoem - hadn't thought to use the flash, so I'll have to give it a try. I only have the on-camera flash, but I can experiment with that until I get an off-camera. It's helpful to get the tips on the settings too. I was going for the big time bokeh :) and hadn't noticed the stem being out of focus.

tonydee - not sure what that plant is either. I remember it being about 3ft tall and I'm guessing it had a few leaves/grass at the bottom, so I'll have to try including that when I go back. I like the idea of the series of quirky photos haha.

robert_lay - speaking of orchids, just got one this weekend. That will be my next experiment!

[Flo]

Looks like a BLooming Onion.they are neat to photograph.

[DerekSimon]

The subject matter just isn't there for me. As Bob stated, good just on the macro work though.