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Old 08-01-2008, 21:05   #2 (permalink)
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Re: Heart of Milkweed

I don't think this works.

The temptation with macro is to keep hold of pics where there is really good fine detail even if other elements of the pic fall down. You need to be more ruthless here than in a lot of other fields.

I think your major problem here is the too shallow depth of field, and the unbalanced frame filling.

There's all this space on the right, a soft seed pod at the top, then a larger seed pod in the middle which lies across the edge of your depth of field, and a little bit of something at the bottom right.

The good things about this photo are the dreamy background colours, which to me scream to surround a much less busy composition, perhaps focused on a single isolated seed pod.

There's no problem with the sharpness where it is sharp but you need to calculate your depth of field (handy online tool here: Online Depth of Field Calculator) , after all this plant isn't going anywhere. You can then know for sure before you've even pressed the shutter whether it's going to all be in lovely sharp focus or not.

Flash is leaving quite hard shadows but I'm not unduly concerned about that, it suits the frosty high contrast thats naturally there anyway.

A smaller aperture, one that affords you adequate dof is what is needed here, along with a much less crowded composition, you can use rubber bands to keep things out the way without damaging a plant. HTH
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