[SDJImages]

After seeing some great floral shots here, and after the comments about the spider shot... thought I would try flowers....

This is a shot straight from the camera, no PS processing.

This shows the 3 stages of growth... green bud, white budding flower and the full bloom.



I look forward to your helpful comments.

Steve

[Dabhand16]

A well thought out idea with the three stages, and the focus and exposure look good on my work monitor the colours are great and the BG is nicely OOF too.

I think the composition could be improved by keeping all of the stem of the white bud in the frame, as it looks detached. I think if the shot was opened up a little on the top and tightened a bit on the LHS to de-centralise the bloom.

Perhaps a tweak on the contrast to add a bit of detail in the low contrast areas it would improve it too.

[fionaB]

i agree it graham in that it would have improved it quite a bit had u kept the stalk and the entire bulb in the shot, as it looks now it doesnt convey the three stages beca\use it looks as if you are focusing entirely on the flower itself with not a lot of attention being paid to the others. but had you the entire thing in shot it would have more of the story to tell.

Fi

[Boofers]

you didn't say what you used or how you took the picture,,like lens, mode ,,,,,
flower pictures can be anything,,,,I have been glued to my telephoto all year for flowers,,,I have yet to breack out the macro,,,,I need help bad,,,,but your picture is good and you did good for your first shot. By thinking a little more about the composition you will cure that old saying "I shoulda if I coulda"....

[skipper954]

That is a great pic of the flower. It should be decentered though.

Here goes another "Charlotte" . Did you think of the three stages of the flower before your took the shot? If so, then all three stages should have been in focus. I, too, don't get the feeling of the three stages.

See what you made me start thinking about Charlotte? Good.

skip

[nichpr]

The eye tends to gravitate to the bright areas of the shot. So, eventhough the flower is beautiful, my eye moves to the white bud and then to the OFF white bud behind the green one, then to the tip of the petal on the left. When you get in this close, details like this become even more important and can make or break a shot. Yeah, you nailed the focus on the main subject but these other bits detract from the overall.
The devil is in the details as they say. Keep shootin' and postin' - thats how we learn.

[stepheno]

I think it's a lovely shot. I'm struggling to find anything that is really tack sharp and I would clone out the distractions on the left side

[SDJImages]

Thank you all so much for your constructive comments!

I use a Minolta Dimage A1.

I will try and get the composure better next time...

When I was looking at the flowers, the 3 growth stages seemed to jump out at me as an idea of telling a story in one shot.

I agree, they should all be in focus.

As I have mentioned before, I dont like to do much, if anything in PS....to help me get things right in the camera, without thinking..ahh no worries, I can just clone, crop and enhance later.

No doubt as I become more confident with my photography, I will then allow myself more personal leeway on that issue! lol


Once again, this site and all of you are such a great help to a newbie like myself.

Thanks again

Steve

[Charlotte]

Originally Posted by skipper954

That is a great pic of the flower. It should be decentered though.

Here goes another "Charlotte" . Did you think of the three stages of the flower before your took the shot? If so, then all three stages should have been in focus. I, too, don't get the feeling of the three stages.

See what you made me start thinking about Charlotte? Good.

I think you've applied the "Charlotte technique" in good context here Skip + I agree entirely with your comments on this shot.

This is a lovely image, + I think the composition could have been improved by shifting your view up + right, to include the whole stem of the white bud, + exclude the tiny bits on the LHS of the frame which are a bit distracting.

The colours are gorgeous Detail is good, I like the softness + think any sharper would take the delicacy out of the flower. Exposure is spot on

Originally Posted by SDJImages

... When I was looking at the flowers, the 3 growth stages seemed to jump out at me as an idea of telling a story in one shot.

I agree, they should all be in focus.

They would indeed have told that story, Steve, had the composition been per suggestions made here, so you nearly got there This is where the "Charlotte Technique" comes in ... If you have a shot where you are trying to tell a story, as was your intention here, then you have to consider how you are going to relate that story to the viewer, bearing in mind only you can see the scene in real terms, but the viewer relies on your image to read the message you are trying to convey. HTH

I don't think they have to all be in focus, + I like the focusing as it is, anyway I think you would have a job getting them all in sharp focus.