[angkymac]

With this shot, I am trying to understand and learn composition.
I usually shoot what I think looks like a good image, but am not always sure why that is. (I never really learned photography formally.)

Here, I took several pictures of the the red flower from different positions.
The gladiola leaves kept frustrating me because they were so prominent--mostly distracting.
Then tried to see the picture in terms of "main subject" and "supporting features".

I decided to try to "use" the gladiola leaves in some way.
Here, the gladiola leaves are foregrounded, so they might be the main subject, but the bright red flower immediately grabs the eye simply because it is red in a sea of greens.
So the glad blades play the supporting role by framing and pointing leading lines to the red flower.
And the red flower is enhanced as the main subject--or so I think!

That is how I am interpreting what I shot.
Angky

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[MikeNArk]

I think you made good use of the foliage in framing and actually pointing to your subject, Red Aster. I can see how you had to look at this one from many angles to get the composition you liked.
Mike

[angkymac]

I think you made good use of the foliage in framing and actually pointing to you subject, Red Aster. I can see how you had to look at this one from many angles to get the composition you liked.
Mike

Thanks, MIke!
I'm still working on trying to visualize such shots and make them "work"!
Angky

[Ariff]

As you said, using the glad leaves as leading lines, and framing worked well. Putting the flower 1/3 of the way from top left also worked well. Having said that, without even analyzing the picture, I was drawn to this picture out of many others because of the strong contrast in colour. Nice work!

[rpjallan]

That flower looks more like a Gerbera to me but aside from that, I would just zoom in on the flower and get rid of most of the distracting green stuff.

[Fdooch]

As you said yourself, a red flower immediately attracts attention, even though we wanted to highlight the leaves. And the fact that the flower is out of focus is not good. If you consider the leaves as guides, then why did you leave a very noticeable arc from the pot in the frame as well. This could be corrected by cropping if not for the blurred flower. Also, the photo looks somewhat flat. It would be possible to highlight something or put a reflector for a more interesting chiaroscuro pattern

[OrchidJulie]

The "glad blades" are interesting, for sure, but the flower is on a different plant, with a different stem...the "plant person" in me finds that distracting. I think I'd like it better without the flower altogether, just that diagonal composition of the gladiolus foliage.

Just my 0.02

[angkymac]

As you said, using the glad leaves as leading lines, and framing worked well. Putting the flower 1/3 of the way from top left also worked well. Having said that, without even analyzing the picture, I was drawn to this picture out of many others because of the strong contrast in colour. Nice work!

Thank you!
I'm glad you mentioned the benefit to you of the strong color contrast
A helpful input for me.
Angky

---------- Post added 11-18-23 at 06:40 PM ----------

That flower looks more like a Gerbera to me but aside from that, I would just zoom in on the flower and get rid of most of the distracting green stuff.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate what you have said.
Also am glad to know about the Gerbera.
Angky

---------- Post added 11-18-23 at 06:40 PM ----------

That flower looks more like a Gerbera to me but aside from that, I would just zoom in on the flower and get rid of most of the distracting green stuff.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate what you have said.
Also am glad to know about the Gerbera.
Angky

---------- Post added 11-18-23 at 06:44 PM ----------

As you said yourself, a red flower immediately attracts attention, even though we wanted to highlight the leaves. And the fact that the flower is out of focus is not good. If you consider the leaves as guides, then why did you leave a very noticeable arc from the pot in the frame as well. This could be corrected by cropping if not for the blurred flower. Also, the photo looks somewhat flat. It would be possible to highlight something or put a reflector for a more interesting chiaroscuro pattern

The two arcs are something I hadn't noticed; thanks for pointing it out!
Also, getting a highlight into it would certainly be a useful thing to work on.
Thanks for the input!
Angky

---------- Post added 11-18-23 at 06:47 PM ----------

The "glad blades" are interesting, for sure, but the flower is on a different plant, with a different stem...the "plant person" in me finds that distracting. I think I'd like it better without the flower altogether, just that diagonal composition of the gladiolus foliage.

Just my 0.02

As a "plant person", yes, indeed! I can see your point!
For me, it was merely composition, but for you, it certainly will be much more than that.
Your perspective is valuable--and something to consider if I present images to persons with specialty knowledge.
Good input!
Thank you.
Angky

[OrchidJulie]

As a "plant person", yes, indeed! I can see your point!
For me, it was merely composition, but for you, it certainly will be much more than that.
Your perspective is valuable--and something to consider if I present images to persons with specialty knowledge.
Good input!
Thank you.
Angky

You're welcome. I find the gladiolus foliage very interesting, quite lovely shape and color, without the Gerbera (or whatever it is) that composition, green against green, is very appealing to me. Now from another angle, with the red flower foreground and the arcing foliage framing it from the rear, very nice indeed. But I suspect that angle wasn't do-able for various reasons. Alas.

[angkymac]

You're welcome. I find the gladiolus foliage very interesting, quite lovely shape and color, without the Gerbera (or whatever it is) that composition, green against green, is very appealing to me. Now from another angle, with the red flower foreground and the arcing foliage framing it from the rear, very nice indeed. But I suspect that angle wasn't do-able for various reasons. Alas.

No, in fact very impossible!
That is why I was experimenting. I wanted the red flower, but had only one vantage point.
I'm very glad, though, for all the feedback I got; it opened up different ideas that I can consider.
And thanks too, for your inputs!
Angky

[OrchidJulie]

No, in fact very impossible!
That is why I was experimenting. I wanted the red flower, but had only one vantage point.
I'm very glad, though, for all the feedback I got; it opened up different ideas that I can consider.
And thanks too, for your inputs!
Angky

Completely understood. Who among us hasn't had a similar dilemma? I considered myself lucky when shooting in my former employer's garden, because I could (and did) tramp about more or less at will, and if necessary I could (and did) use all kinds of MacGyver and Rube Goldberg machinations to get something distracting out of the frame, but I wouldn't dream of trying it in anyone else's garden.

[jcdoss]

I might suggest zooming in on the middle third of this frame and opening up the aperture in order to try and blur out the evergreen in the background.

[angkymac]

I might suggest zooming in on the middle third of this frame and opening up the aperture in order to try and blur out the evergreen in the background.

Yes!
Indeed that would reduce the distraction of the finely detailed juniper leaves/scales as they catch the light on the tips, wouldn't it?
Good suggestion.
Thinking back on the situation, I might not be able to do that with the camera I was using. I would like to go back and try that.
But the camera was a little Sony RX100 with the one-inch sensor--very difficult t get the background blurred out if the background is close to the subject.
I'll give that some thought next time I see such a similar image and see if it will work.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Angky