Help with my image

Hello all, this forum is a wonderful resource for noobs like myself. I've been reading for over 3 weeks and would like some feeback/assistance. This is a photo I took a few minutes ago and there seem to be white spots throughout when I zoom in. I'm not sure if this is the camera or some kind of trick of light. This is my first DSLR and I have a long way to go. Also I am not getting the detail I would like on the petals. Any suggestions or feedback would be greatly appreciated. My shot settings were:

450D
Nifty fifty lens
f/13
1/250
ISO 200
Sun at my back
Larger versions with complete exif data on flickr:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Can't tell anything from what you posted, which looks fine from here - can you post a crop showing the white spots and lack of detail?

At leas to me, the white balance looks a little off... Did you shoot in RAW?

stsva wrote in post #8719402
Can't tell anything from what you posted, which looks fine from here - can you post a crop showing the white spots and lack of detail?

Thanks here is a crop I did in DPP, I could be wrong but I though I would get alot more petal detail which makes me think I did something wrong with exposure. The inner petals seem to all be blending together, this could be a limitation of the camera or lens, but I tend to think it's my own limitation being that i've only ever used a point and shoot camera.

You can also clearly see the white spots at the bottom here. I thought the original full size image would be available for download on flickr but I guess I was wrong. Thanks for your help, told you I was a noob.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

NPuter wrote in post #8719420
At leas to me, the white balance looks a little off... Did you shoot in RAW?

Yes I shot it in RAW but left white balance on auto.

The white spots look like they could be small water droplets, but I'm not sure; they do look like something that was present in the scene and not "added" by camera/lens. The detail looks pretty good to me. One thing to consider is that you've got a bunch of petals with a very bright color (yellow) and not a lot of contrast between their edges, so I don't think it's surprising that you're not seeing a lot of differentiation between each individual petal.

stsva wrote in post #8719459
The white spots look like they could be small water droplets, but I'm not sure; they do look like something that was present in the scene and not "added" by camera/lens. The detail looks pretty good to me. One thing to consider is that you've got a bunch of petals with a very bright color (yellow) and not a lot of contrast between their edges, so I don't think it's surprising that you're not seeing a lot of differentiation between each individual petal.

Thanks for the feeback,

The flower is very small and I was probably less than 2ft from it taking the photo, I probably looked like a complete nutcase to my neighbors on all fours looking at the petal for water drops but I couldn't tell if there was water there or not. I'll keep taking pics and see if white spots show up on other photos. If you guys think the photo looks fine, i'll take that as a compliment since i've literally been shooting for all of 4 days. The nifty fifty was given to me by a friend who has moved on to more expensive glass so I guess I need more time with it. Thanks and any other feedback by the more experienced would be greatly appreciated.......

Keep shooting - I think you're off to a fine start!

Got a UV filter on?

Strong sun, small drops of dew reflected in the sun could cause this.

crashthenet44 wrote in post #8719820
Got a UV filter on?

No UV filter yet but they are on my list. This is going to become an expensive hobby, but i'm hooked already!!!!