Bird of PARADISE...

[bluemystery]

Bird of Paradise

Look Nice nice​

Heya Guys!

Newbie here.

This is my second time posting in the critique forum, and my first attempt at macro shots.

Please give me your honest criticisms and how I can improve the shot.

The flower in the pic is called the Bird of Paradise I think.

Hoping the pros out that could comment on my composition. Should I have cropped out the other flower @ the background?

Felt that it provided some "balance"...

what about the colours? Is the saturation n contrast just right?

Is the pic sharp enough?

Anyway, thanks for taking a look!

Cheers!

 

[newlife]

look nice nice pic is indeed a very nice pic...color contract cant get any better btween the flower and the leaves..yes ur right about the back ground flower is distracting,its color shade is not helping the senior flower one bit cropping is way tooo tight fr me at the top:think:clever cropping can balance out ur pic easy finally further blurring the background can really make the senior flower stand out...

 

[bluemystery]

look nice nice pic is indeed a very nice pic...color contract cant get any better btween the flower and the leaves..yes ur right about the back ground flower is distracting,its color shade is not helping the senior flower one bit cropping is way tooo tight fr me at the top:think:clever cropping can balance out ur pic easy finally further blurring the background can really make the senior flower stand out...

Heya! Thanks for the pointers.

Hmm, Its gonna be hard to crop away that background flower, e photo will appear to tight?

I agree about the tightness at the top. Its just too bad, coz I took photo of it in landscape at first...So the height, its fixed...

 

[catchlights]

this flower looks over the prime liao, you can find a younger one, which has nicer shape and more brilliant color.

to make the red stands out, you can place the flower at the complimentary color (green) as background.

you also need to show more of the stalk, it looks very unbalance here.

 

[bluemystery]

this flower looks over the prime liao, you can find a younger one, which has nicer shape and more brilliant color.

to make the red stands out, you can place the flower at the complimentary color (green) as background.

you also need to show more of the stalk, it looks very unbalance here.

Okie Point taken. Flower's too old. I will go look for nicer flowers.
:sweat:

U think the background flower is distracting?

 

[catchlights]

Okie Point taken. Flower's too old. I will go look for nicer flowers.
:sweat:

U think the background flower is distracting?

Yes, it is distracting.

 

[FarmStudioField]

Hi, anyone has it's own taste.

For me, I'd like to make the background blurer with green only or any lighter/paler color than the main object to make it stands out. [already suggested]
Would adjust the angle a little to seperate the two flowers and to make it less tight, so it could be cropped later on.
Would choose fresher or much older flower to stress on the distinctiveness. [already suggested]

Sometimes, and most of the times, we have no time to fix everything to make it perfect.
But at least it's a macro close up shot. Yes, we need to be patient.. Otherwise, shoot more pictures and refine one or more =)

 

[bluemystery]

Hi, anyone has it's own taste.

For me, I'd like to make the background blurer with green only or any lighter/paler color than the main object to make it stands out. [already suggested]
Would adjust the angle a little to seperate the two flowers and to make it less tight, so it could be cropped later on.
Would choose fresher or much older flower to stress on the distinctiveness. [already suggested]

Sometimes, and most of the times, we have no time to fix everything to make it perfect.
But at least it's a macro close up shot. Yes, we need to be patient.. Otherwise, shoot more pictures and refine one or more =)

Heya! Thanks for the advise. Think I was too obsessed with getting close up, and showing details that I failed to give3 the flower breathing space, and noticing the background.

So the thing now is,

1) I choose a younger fresher flower
2) Try to take from a new angle without that background flower
3) Show more of the stalk? and more breathing space for the top and bottom?

Do I follow the rule of thirds for close ups of flowers as well? Which means I place the flower to the upper left hand intersect, or can I centralise it?:dunno:

Anyway, Thanks Loads. I'm learning something new.

 

[m3lv1nh0]

Not sure this is considered Macro or just a close up shot. IMHO, We see this flower everywhere and it's really isn't interesting to me at least. I would suggest you really do a macro shot where the focus is on the flowers itself. This might be more interesting as the viewer has to guess what flower is this.

 

[blackpearl]

I think the subject is not sharp enough and the background a little distracting.

 

[bluemystery]

I think the subject is not sharp enough and the background a little distracting.

Background aside, How do I make e pic sharper? PS? Or should I just blame my kit lens?

 

[Buggy]

Background aside, How do I make e pic sharper? PS? Or should I just blame my kit lens?

imo, the subject is sharp.

do ask others for their comment on sharpness as well, it's subjective.

 

[bluemystery]

imo, the subject is sharp.

do ask others for their comment on sharpness as well, it's subjective.

Okie. Point taken. Thanks Guys. I really learnt alot

 

[blackpearl]

Background aside, How do I make e pic sharper? PS? Or should I just blame my kit lens?

The petal at the back is focused better than the other parts of the flower in front. I would prefer majority of the subject is in sharp focus. Or did you intentionally blur it? I think it may be due to extremely narrow DOF.

 

[bluemystery]

The petal at the back is focused better than the other parts of the flower in front. I would prefer majority of the subject is in sharp focus. Or did you intentionally blur it? I think it may be due to extremely narrow DOF.

Dun mind my noob question, How do you focus on the whole subject?:dunno:

 

[blackpearl]

Dun mind my noob question, How do you focus on the whole subject?:dunno:

You can achieve that by altering the DOF. One way of doing this is to adjust the aperture. But given certain circumstance, it might be impossible to get the right shot. For example, if you increase the DOF, the background will not get blurred.

For a given aperture, Probably you could try to move away from the subject to get most of the subject in focus.

Any comments from others?

 

[bluemystery]

You can achieve that by altering the DOF. One way of doing this is to adjust the aperture. But given certain circumstance, it might be impossible to get the right shot. For example, if you increase the DOF, the background will not get blurred.

For a given aperture, Probably you could try to move away from the subject to get most of the subject in focus.

Any comments from others?

hmm.

I don't quite understand.

I used a high aperture because I wanted to blurr out the background n the foreground to be sharp, isnt it?

I thought for close ups, should have less DOF, so that viewers can concentrate on the flower instead.

Oh yeah...and where on that flower should my focus point be?

Anyone could enlighten me?

Thanks

 

[emerald]

Did u increased the color saturation during post processing? The color contrast is nice, but too nice that it creates a fake feeling. A little desaturated may be better.

Composition side, the object is too full in the frame, may leave out some more space for it to balance the frame.

Correct me if wrong.

 

[blackpearl]

hmm.

I used a high aperture because I wanted to blurr out the background n the foreground to be sharp, isnt it?

I thought for close ups, should have less DOF, so that viewers can concentrate on the flower instead.

Thanks

Yes you are right in saying that you have to have a narrow DOF to blur the background. But I feel the DOF was too narrow so that only a part of the subject is in sharp focus. Just play around with different aperture and play around with different subject distance. I know in some situations you cannot get the perfect shot because of distracting background etc.

Keep trying with different settings. You will be surprised what you can achieve.