[Tonytee]

Shot was taken at 170mm, no flash, used CWA Metering. I did use everything I had access to PPE wise, but I could not get a decent appearance with this subject. Perhaps I would have been better off to have round filed it. Any comments/suggestions/solutions will be greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Rgds,

Antonio

[redpit]

It's not an interesting subject but it would be better if you get closer! Fill your frame with colours and flowers, it will surely make a better image. The dark-black background is not offering anything (at least according to my taste).

[arnold]

Sometimes we should be content that we have faithfully captured what we set out to do. Not every photo needs be a work of artistry. I would be happy with this myself.

[BigMackCam]

Hi Antonio...

In this shot, the flower in isolation is the part of interest, so I would look to crop around it, and perhaps add some vignetting to bring the eye to the centre of the photograph. Also, the flower is quite complex with lots of wavy lines and detail, so enhancing sharpness helps to bring out that detail. Next, the colours are attractive, so it's worth making the best of those with careful tonality, saturation and contrast adjustment. Attached below is an example of a quick edit in Photoshop Elements 14 and Color Efex Pro, although you could do all of this with many of the free post-processing tools out there.

Attached Images

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File Date

 

[Tonytee]

Many thanks to everyone for your constructive and helpful comments and ideas.

Rgds,

Antonio

[clackers]

Aesthetics is such a minefield, Tony, and I don't usually comment on them, but here goes:

What two things were you trying to balance?

Was it:

1. Textured subject vs flat background
2. Light vs dark
3. Rounded subject vs rectangular borders
4. Red vs green transition in the subject

You could take four very different photos as a result.

Your original just seems a very literal picture of flowers, without emphasis, so perhaps that's why you're dissatisfied?

[Tonytee]

Aesthetics is such a minefield, Tony, and I don't usually comment on them, but here goes:

What two things were you trying to balance?

Was it:

1. Textured subject vs flat background
2. Light vs dark
3. Rounded subject vs rectangular borders
4. Red vs green transition in the subject

You could take four very different photos as a result.

Your original just seems a very literal picture of flowers, without emphasis, so perhaps that's why you're dissatisfied?

I believe my problem was trying to make diamonds out of poop. It is just not an attractive subject to begin with. It is simply dull, boring and no POP. I think a more suitable caption would be: This is my brain after using drugs. )) More appropriate. I need to be more discriminate on what I decide to shoot. However, when it comes to flowers, it can be a nebulous situation. Once again, many thanks for the assistance.

Antonio

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Last edited by BigMackCam; 09-02-2016 at 12:28 AM. Reason: Edited minor vulgarity.

[clackers]

I believe my problem was trying to make diamonds out of poop. It is just not an attractive subject to begin with.

Hmmm. Look at Mike's treatment.

Yes, we've all seen flowers before.

What's interesting is *your* take on common subject matter.

You could take four very different photos with the four strategies suggested above. The last might use a macro lens to get just the red/green colour fields. By choosing one area over another, they could be in a fifty/fifty proportion or more dynamically, twenty-five/seventy-five either way, for instance.

You could go black and white and concentrate on the shapes ... lots of possibilities.

But if you don't have any artistic principle in mind, then yes, it just documents that you were there!

Don't worry, I take plenty of snapshots too, and yes, they're disappointingly mundane.

[Tonytee]

Hmmm. Look at Mike's treatment.

Yes, we've all seen flowers before.

What's interesting is *your* take on common subject matter.

You could take four very different photos with the four strategies suggested above. The last might use a macro lens to get just the red/green colour fields. By choosing one area over another, they could be in a fifty/fifty proportion or more dynamically, twenty-five/seventy-five either way, for instance.

You could go black and white and concentrate on the shapes ... lots of possibilities.

But if you don't have any artistic principle in mind, then yes, it just documents that you were there!

Don't worry, I take plenty of snapshots too, and yes, they're disappointingly mundane.

You make excellent points. The odd thing is that being there and looking it over (sans the lens) it appeared to have some real possibilities. The only analogy I can think of would how be we would describe the appearance of a woman. We would not she is beautiful, or even pretty, or even cute. We would however, say that she is appealing. That is what I was faced with when checking out this flower. I wonder if it may very well be a hybrid of some sort. Well, lesson learned and again many thanks for your assistance.

Rgds,

Antonio

[clackers]

. I wonder if it may very well be a hybrid of some sort.

Is it a hydrangea, Antonio?

[Tonytee]

Is it a hydrangea, Antonio?

I just checked with THE Authority, and she confirms it is Hydrangea.

Rgds,

Antonio

[amoringello]

Technically it is fine, but has some blown out areas.
Personally, it is not a very compelling image.
Maybe another angel or macro of some portion might be a more interesting viewpoint. i.e simplify the image to eliminate the large amount of detail/subject area throughout the image.

Its a nice image of the plant, but has lack of specific subject. If that makes sense.

Obviously a subjective comment.

[BigDave]

Most everything has been covered so far, and they are all good, but one, point of interest was not mentioned. Look at the original image, where does the eye want to go to first, the hot areas on top? OK, we correct that now where? I think that is the biggest problem. Not having a good anchor point for the eye to move out from and come back to, so you just have a nice picture of a hydrangea flower. A bee would be a cliche, but something like it would help.

[cupic]

I would use a diffuser to soften the light and close down to f/8 and try a few different iso
But as previously stated closer and fill frame

TFS


cheers