[Pooky125]

I tend to think interesting composition, is perhaps more important then color, shape, or quality of flower. One of my favorite flower shots, is of a dying daisy.

[christinelandon]

For me, good floral photography is an orchestration of technical qualities (light, shadow, color, form, texture, controlled use of sharpness, perspective, etc.) in the service of portraiture. It just happens that the subject that is showing off its sexy self is a plant.

Now, since I haven't had the K10D long enough to shoot a floral season (we're just getting underway here in Washington this spring), I'll have to share what I have in mind by posting a photo shot with my old N***n. Please, I know...

[Tom M]

Thanks NaClH2O !!

By the way, they're not white bugs flying around, they're drops of water shooting past from a sprinkler.. I took that at the Alhambra Palace.. It was hot and they needed some water

[NaClH2O]

Bruce, I love that yellow Calla, what a marvelous shot!

NaCl(now that's good photography!)H2O

[NaClH2O]

Christine, great "painterly" effect on that rose, and wonderful saturated colors. I guess Nikon makes good cameras after all

NaCl(but I have too many k mount lenses to be tempted)H2O

[christinelandon]

Salty, the JPEG doesn't really do the shot justice. Printed, the warmth of the late evening sunlight, striking the flower from the side, makes the reds very rich and warms the yellows and lighter tones. In my portfolio, this image almost always gets a "wow!" My K10D and I can hardly wait for rose season this year!

[JrPentax]

so i went along to the flower show in melbourn and took some pictures...

the pictures are at A day @ MIF and GS

however the ones i really like are...

i just like this - i looked at it for quite a while before i noticed the background at all, so i guess it kind of captivated me...


what i liked about this collection of sunflowers is the way that they change angle accross each other to give me such a lovley collection of angles right there in one shot...


one thing about the flower show in general was the ability to be able to take shots with wonderfull backgrounds as well as forgrounds, it really did lay out the flowers for me in a way i think that helped the shots a lot more... here is a typical example of that... you can imagine that this is really pushing me to get a lense i can decrease the fstop on further - HOWEVER i will be taking the tripod and attempting some blury backrounds on the weekend...


i really like this tulip picture

it keeps me looking at it - i also like the head on tulip picture as well - but this one side on seems to attract my eye a lot more...

this sot of the swan on the lake is amazing because it was totally hand held - it really amazed me that i was still abel to get such clarity

its actually about the size that it is because i had to crop out a lot of the background - you can actually see the size in one of the other less croped shots (number 40)... so this is pretty well all the way in on just a tiny section of the picture

i really like this picture as a picture but am a little upset that its still blury - obviously i couldnt hold it so still on this angle...



i filled two 2gig sd cards taking these shots, every time i took a shot i bracketed it (except the swan/duck pictures) - i have three cards but one of them was half full already

i have my bracketing set to under normal over - with 1.5 steps, a lot of my unders were blury, probably from the pushing the button, the normals were all pretty good, and the overs seemed un-necessary, if i had more sd space i would probably go for 5 shot bracketing with 0.5 steps - i am thinking about swaping the order for my next shots to over normal under because i am finding the overs to be far to out of focus and i would rather waste the blur there and keep the unders as a lot of them looked great except for the motion blur of being handheld....

i selected 200 iso for the whole days shooting and think it went a long way to making the hand helds doable....

i dont know what you think though, but thats how i achieved each of the shots above - you can click on the link to see all 55 pictures that i decided i liked from the shots.... each shot shows the relevant meta data that i think is iportant to getting decent assistence with photographs...

actually i would love to hear from others what camera settings they use to acheive certain photos, i think that is really helpfull information :-)

i hope this helps you out somewhat "Ed in GA" - btw, what / where is GA ? i nearly wrote GTA....

[photomad_2007]

Hi,

I am an avid fan of Scot Kelby, and his advise is do not take a flower picture we should take it from the level of the flowers and not from top. I found this advise very useful, plus Flowers are very good subjects if photographed from unusual perspectives, like from under, filling the full frame with just the centre of the flower or even just a few petals. I have posted one picture here which I shot before I read Scot's book, and am looking forward to shoot more using his advise soon. ( I am going to be jobless soon, with this obsession towards photography).
Thanks,
Kris

[ryan s]

i really like this tulip picture

Since I'm busy now, I want to say that this is what makes a flower pic for me. You might see a post from me later on

In no order:
-DoF
-Vibrant color
-Contrast
-Bokeh
-Sharpness

Great capture

[JrPentax]

hey photomad_2007 - i like that shot and am wondering very much what settings and equipment you used to capture it

thanks heaps

ryan_s - thankyou as well for your kind words, I am heading back down to the flower show thisafternoon, I dont want to go tomorrow as I think to many people will be there and it will be just far too busy. Ill try and keep these words in mind.

[rmtagg]

I try all the angles, play with depth of field. Dont just look at the flower but really see it. the is more to the flower than the whole.
You can see some of my work here, just haven't had time to get much loaded yet.
Zenfolio | 2daysphotos

As for me I love to shoot in the rain

[trumpyman]

[ATTACH]Attachment 10319[/ATTACH]
Alot of nice pics here hope u dont mind me joinin in.

[Mallee Boy]

Hi Ed,
All of the above, then add in your own personal flair or style.
It is also worthwhile printing a couple to see how they come up.
I had this one printed onto a 12" X 18" canvas a few days ago and it absolutely leaps off the canvas.

The printer was even impressed enough to suggest it had value.

Cheers
Grant

[Lowell Goudge]

What makes a really good flower close-up/macro, as opposed to the run-of-the-mill flower picture. Is it sharpness? Is it DOF? Is it lighting? Is it color? Is it shape?
snip Please, share your secrets,

Ed

I would have to say good flowers is a reasonable start

Seriously though, I think many of the other people who have responded have shown a very wide variety of styles that are impressive.

I think the biggest issue (and note, I am no master, most of my posts involve wildlife, specifically birds) , is a painstaking attention to details. You will note the best images are very clean, with no distracting background, managed either by DOF control or lighting control (black or uniform sky background).

That is all it takes, contrast may be a function of the flower itself, but is not a requirement, a great shot of soft pastel colors also works. Blown out highlights can work, as long as they are not excessive.

I think alll th eposters have shown something different, and they all work

[aegisphan]

Some of the shots from my trip to a local botanical garden: