Bottlebrush Tree

[Hailaz]

All feedback welcomed, I'm still very new to photography but I've got a decent graphics background. I've just adjusted my monitor gamma today after installing a new video card, nightmare, lol.

Is this too bright? My first attempt was too dark and lacked shadow detail. I'm hoping I haven't gone the other way. My monitor is set at 2.09 now.

Rebel 350D with kit lens - late afternoon

http://www.amandanichols.net/imagesnew/trees/bottlebrush/IMG_0710600L.JPG

Ty in advance!

[mal]

I like the composition, color, and DoF. But the plant in the foreground (or, is it a flower?) seems it could be sharper. I am not sure how good the kit lens with the XT is, but I think it could be sharper. Was this cropped?

[lomond]

Too bright ?.......it looks just fine on my monitor.
In fact it looks great.
There's a lot I like about this shot.
The compostion, DOF, saturation.
As for sharpness it looks OK to me but sometimes sharpness is an individual thing.
It's certainly not OOF.

Regards,

[PhotosGuy]

A bit lower angle might have eliminated the distracting bright areas at the bottom?

[Hailaz]

Ty everyone for your feedback!

I am looking at that shot now and thinking "did I sharpen that when I was editing second time around?" and I don't think I did.

Mal :-) Here's the same shot sharpened and yes it is cropped

and Photo's Guy I've adjusted green channel to alter the highlights from the bottom of the pic.

Is this an improvement?

Mal - please excuse my ignorance but what's OOF or was that a typo? It'll bug me if I don't ask the question, lol.

http://www.amandanichols.net/portfolio/trees/bottlebrush/IMG_0710222.JPG

[PhotosGuy]

OOF = Out Of Focus.
I think I like the color of 2nd one better, but I might lighten the bloom a touch.

[Hailaz]

Thank you! I appreciate your feedback. I'm playing with a different raw conversion s/w atm, and it's proving very interesting.

[malcolmx]

hi from the uk if i may add may ho the picture is well coloured but lacks definition in that the main shot is not isolated .the background should be much more out of focus to isolate the main flower (are these flowes or bracts?) idealy you should use a tripod or monopod if possible . the kit lens will not be the most appropriate lens if you have a macro use that failing that a zoom lens will often isolate the subject well, but in both cases camera shake can be a problem. i photo lots of flowers and i envy you your horticultural range

[BottomBracket]

The second one is a tad sharper, and I like it better :) Now if there was a bee hovering nearby......

[BrandonSi]

hi from the uk if i may add may ho the picture is well coloured but lacks definition in that the main shot is not isolated .the background should be much more out of focus to isolate the main flower (are these flowes or bracts?) idealy you should use a tripod or monopod if possible . the kit lens will not be the most appropriate lens if you have a macro use that failing that a zoom lens will often isolate the subject well, but in both cases camera shake can be a problem. i photo lots of flowers and i envy you your horticultural range

exactly what I was thinking.. it's a very good shot, but it would be great if you had used a wider aperture to make the background more detatched from the shot. Not sure if that was possible with your lens or not, but some photoshop work (gaussian blur) could do it.

[Hailaz]

Hey guys - ty for your responses!

I took the pic with a tripod and cable release but it was a reasonably windy day.

The lens I have (it's the only one I have atm) is an 18 - 55mm and the highest fstop it would do was f5.6 as I had the camera on aperture priority because I wanted the blurred b/g. I will go back and try shutter priority next time, it's only just down the road from me. I need to use it on manual more often.

The next thing on the shopping list is a zoom lens!

The problem I have re the sharpening is that it sharpened the whole pic because I didn't separate the flower (or whatever it is, lol) from the background and do a selective sharpen. It's a complicated flower isn't it, so I wasn't sure if I could do it.

Malcolmx - I'm from the UK too - I emigrated 7 1/2 years ago, I was one of the lucky ones to escape! Theres positive and negative on a photography level - there aren't the historical buildings here like there are in the UK and the British flora is quite diverse really, I miss some of the fab trees we have over there. It's different here but Britain has it's positive points too so don't be too envious! *g*

Ty again everyone!

[tim]

IMHO get much, much closer. You don't need to include the whole flower in the shot.

[Hailaz]

Ty! I'll give it a go next time I go try again!

[Hellashot]

Ty everyone for your feedback!

I am looking at that shot now and thinking "did I sharpen that when I was editing second time around?" and I don't think I did.

Mal :-) Here's the same shot sharpened and yes it is cropped

and Photo's Guy I've adjusted green channel to alter the highlights from the bottom of the pic.

Is this an improvement?

Mal - please excuse my ignorance but what's OOF or was that a typo? It'll bug me if I don't ask the question, lol.



The highlights were darkened well but you only needed to darken the highlights, not the whole image. You can do it with at least PSE 3