My first Critique post.

[Kelv2888]

Picture of my Sun shot with 20D with 70-200 F4L metered off the sky on manual.
Flower shot taken with 17-40 F4L on manual focus.
What do you think guys? Any comments much appreciated.

[Vetteography]

I think the picture of the boy is great, but the picture of the flower is too soft.

[Kelv2888]

What do you mean by too soft?

Thanks for the reply.

[Vetteography]

What do you mean by too soft?

Thanks for the reply.

I mean that it seems a bit too out of focus. Not blurry, but being ever-so-slightly out of focuse will give you softer edges. The stamen and the other structures at the center of the flower are not as sharp as they could be.

Don't get me wrong, the exposure and framing are great, and it is a good shot overall, but it could be "more", know what I mean?

[Kelv2888]

Ah yes, It musta been the handholding I guess.Maybe a higher shutter speed next time.The garden doesnt allow tripods!
Thanks for your input.

[Elbee19]

I really like both photos. I agree that the second one is a tad soft but it works though. The only thing I would offer is to crop both images to narrow your focus on the subjects. IMHO...there is too much dead space and the photos would have more appeal if the subjects filled the frame.

Great photos and thanks for sharing!

[Kelv2888]

Thats a great idea!

Thank you Elbee for your comments.Im a newbie and can use all the help I can get.

[cactusclay]

Nice shots. I like the composition of the flower, but it is a bit soft.

[Kelv2888]

:p Ok thats it!!
Ill do tripod, mirror lockup and cable release next time I take a shot like this.

Thank you all so much.
How bout the pic of my kid?
Is the exposure correct?
Thanks

[DavidEB]

The kid pic is perfect. priceless. perfect exposure. love the backwards hat.

my opinion, for what it's worth, is that the flower shot "softness" is related to not enough depth of field. It looks like the rear pistil (the greenish one) is in sharp focus and the others are outside the DOF. The petals are all outside the DOF. Try a higher ISO and smaller aperature (larger f-number). Also, try to get the flower centered. For low-angle flower shots, you might try to control the DOF so that the front petals and flower center are in focus and the back petals fade out.

kind regards,

David

[froman98]

I love the flower! It's a good shot. Maybe use a smaller f-stop to minimize DOF to get more of the flower petals in focus.

[grego]

Picture of my Sun shot with 20D with 70-200 F4L metered off the sky on manual.


Out of curiousity, why did you meter of the sky, and not your son?

[Kelv2888]

Oh just experimenting a little. It was suggested in Bryan Peterson's Book
"Exposure".