Flower Shots - Please critique to improve my skills

[csondagar]

Hello All

The following were taken in Butchart Gardens. Please critique so that I can leanr more to improve my shots. Also, what are the (user-friendly) names of this flowers/plants?

1. http://images.fotopic.net/?id=16792196


2. http://images.fotopic.net/?id=16792204


3. http://images.fotopic.net/?id=16792233


4. http://images.fotopic.net/?id=16792234

Thanks.

[Meerkat17]

As for names of the first two I can't say as there is insufficient visual information to identify the latter two are called in the UK "Sweet William" and the last is a Lilly

Now for the critique.
On the first and the last you would have been better selecting just one flower head and getting iin a little closer so that you could show some detail of the flower and a portrait format would have been better in my opinion.

On the middle two images - for a shot of flowers like these you have two options in my opinion either get in reall close and single out one flower head or catch a large bunch all in flower and fill the frame.

Hope this helps
Regards

[PhotosGuy]

#1 Nice DOF. I'd have moved more to the left & shot a vertical crop.
#2 Crop 1/3 off the left. The top blooms should be sharpest here, if all of them aren't.
#3 I'd have tried to hide the white blooms with the magenta one. The white/magenta bloom pops out, so it should be sharpest as that's where our eyes will go.
#4 I like it except for the blade running right to left under the bloom. I'd have flattened it!
Clone out the blade running up from the bloom, & maybe crop in overall a bit.
Anything else...? :D;)

[csondagar]

Guys, thank you very much for your comments. I will keep these points in mind the next time I shoot.

Photoguy: there is something else, actually. Visit my site and comment on each of the photo there. :cool:

[PhotosGuy]

:D Maybe in another life! ;)

[Stark]

1. Primula Vialii

2. Senecio (Cotton Flower) (I think??)

Regards,

[tim]

Get closer... then closer... then closer again. Get way closer than you think is reasonable. That's one style. There are too many flower photos around, you need to do something different to stand out. Also, i'd suggest getting a macro lens.

[EddieA]

The last one's a Day Lily (Hemerocallis)

- and, I slightly disagree with 'tim' here, there are not sufficient good photographs of flowers out there - but there are probably millions of average ones.
Also, IMHO, there are two types of flower picture - the portrait - where the specific flower is important, which is for identification or illustration and can be as artisitic as any human portrait and other more abstract, artistic views of flowers where the photographic picture is more important than the specific subject.
Make up your mind what you're attempting before each shot - and go for it.

[rssfhs]

Too many shots to critique at once, so let me just say a few things about number 1.
Always be aware of the background. The fern leaf on the left is touching the flower
which is the main subject and for me anyway it is a little distracting. I would have moved the
camera lightly to the left in order to separate the two.

I would have also tried blurring the background even more if possible. For me simple photos
are the most effective.

One last thing, the photo seems to be over-compressed. There is quite a lot of pixelation. 40.6KB is not quite enough for an image this size. I would make it 90-130KB.

Good luck!