Sunflower By The Roadside


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skeletonman

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Sep 14, 2007
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I have posted this in this forum under travel and citiscapes. The reason why I posted this in CC again is that I want to receive some comments and critiques from all the experts in this forum.

This image was taken at a carpark somewhere in Vietnam HCM city. Forgotten to lower the ISO before taking this shot so ended up with ISO 1600 (And this is the only image I managed to shoot as I was rushing around). Done some noise reduction using neat image.

Any ways in improving this?


HoChiMinhCity-Sunflower.jpg
 

Hi skeletonman.

If you don't mind a newbie's comments.

I find that the man on bike at background is a huge distraction. If you can take it to show more of the greens and other sunflowers in blur, maybe it will look nicer. Don't know what that's called technically, DOF?

Rgds,
 

Why do you like this particular shot?

A sunflower is a sunflower is a sunflower, Ho Chi Minh City or Kabul or Sydney or even Singapore.

Or perhaps its the moment that you captured, then and there? But then this message in that moment is not at all clear. Is it because the blur, out of focus person on a motorcycle looks like Darth Vader? If so what relationship has it to the sunflower that let your viewer see something you want them to see?

If you want to capture the atmosphere of the place, then surely this picture is not doing it - for we see a sunflower only - and further, the focus has to be elsewhere and other elements are more necessary than just a sunflower.

On the other hand if I suppose the blur 50% of your image was unintentional and a mistake, then what you are merely saying is "Sunflower", and for which you would crop off the top 50%. And then there will be nothing more left to it - in fact less - than the millions of sunflower pictures you see now and then. Further the sunflower, especially at its captivating interesting complex centre is in the shadows.
 

Hi skeletonman.

If you don't mind a newbie's comments.

I find that the man on bike at background is a huge distraction. If you can take it to show more of the greens and other sunflowers in blur, maybe it will look nicer. Don't know what that's called technically, DOF?

Rgds,

Of cos I won't mind your comments. No worries.;)

I don't know, when I was taking this shot and the biker just stopped at there and I thought it would be nice to include the biker in the shot. (Maybe I was wrong)

If I have more time to take more shots I could try different combinations of shots and see how it goes.

Thanks for the input.
 

Why do you like this particular shot?

A sunflower is a sunflower is a sunflower, Ho Chi Minh City or Kabul or Sydney or even Singapore.

Or perhaps its the moment that you captured, then and there? But then this message in that moment is not at all clear. Is it because the blur, out of focus person on a motorcycle looks like Darth Vader? If so what relationship has it to the sunflower that let your viewer see something you want them to see?

If you want to capture the atmosphere of the place, then surely this picture is not doing it - for we see a sunflower only - and further, the focus has to be elsewhere and other elements are more necessary than just a sunflower.

On the other hand if I suppose the blur 50% of your image was unintentional and a mistake, then what you are merely saying is "Sunflower", and for which you would crop off the top 50%. And then there will be nothing more left to it - in fact less - than the millions of sunflower pictures you see now and then. Further the sunflower, especially at its captivating interesting complex centre is in the shadows.


Did not really think so much into the whole relationships of the environments and the subject. (Have to learn more about the relationships).

As for the blurred background, I used noise reduction software to reduce the noise as I forgotten to change the ISO settings back to normal. In the end, ended up with ISO1600. lol
I guess that explained the blurred background:)

Have to continue shooting and shooting until I improve.

Thanks for the valuable input!

Cheers!
 

As for the blurred background, I used noise reduction software to reduce the noise as I forgotten to change the ISO settings back to normal. In the end, ended up with ISO1600. lol
I guess that explained the blurred background:)

Have to continue shooting and shooting until I improve.

Thanks for the valuable input!

Cheers!

the noise reduction software didnt blurr the background. if it did, than your sunflower would have been made blurr too.

it is likely due to

1) the big aperture.
2) and close distant between the flower to your camera.
3) the relative distant between flower to camera and background (Darth Vader on motorbike) to camera.
4) high iso that you forget to reset. normally, when in auto mode, camera will see high iso, so open big aperture so that the shutter speed can be high enough to reduce camera shake.
 

Did not really think so much into the whole relationships of the environments and the subject.
Composition is a deliberate mental effort, and sometimes you have to think fast and even instinctively, especially for street photography.

Not to put in such mental effort, conscious or otherwise, before you hit the shutter, is what have been derogatorily called a "snap shot" here in clubsnap.
 

Some newbie comments...

I feel your title doesn't really suit your picture well enough. By the roadside, but I can't really see the road.

IMO,

1) See more sunflowers with the background still blur, but able to tell it's the road.
2) Place the sunflower/s on the bottom left, with the street covering the rest of the picture.
3) Do selective colouring. Leave the colours of the sunflowers as it is, while B&W the background.
 

the noise reduction software didnt blurr the background. if it did, than your sunflower would have been made blurr too.

it is likely due to

1) the big aperture.
2) and close distant between the flower to your camera.
3) the relative distant between flower to camera and background (Darth Vader on motorbike) to camera.
4) high iso that you forget to reset. normally, when in auto mode, camera will see high iso, so open big aperture so that the shutter speed can be high enough to reduce camera shake.


Thanks for the input.

As for the noise reduction part, what I wanna say is that before it was not as blurred as this. But after its blurred:)
 

Composition is a deliberate mental effort, and sometimes you have to think fast and even instinctively, especially for street photography.

Not to put in such mental effort, conscious or otherwise, before you hit the shutter, is what have been derogatorily called a "snap shot" here in clubsnap.

I see what you mean, really appreciate your valuable input. :)
 

Some newbie comments...

I feel your title doesn't really suit your picture well enough. By the roadside, but I can't really see the road.

IMO,

1) See more sunflowers with the background still blur, but able to tell it's the road.
2) Place the sunflower/s on the bottom left, with the street covering the rest of the picture.
3) Do selective colouring. Leave the colours of the sunflowers as it is, while B&W the background.

Can't think of a suitable name so...came up with a lame title like this lol...:sweat:
Selective coloring is a good idea, will work on the picture again.
 

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