Flowers - Camera Play

[tamtamjo]

I was playing with my camera today and thought this was a nice shot. Hope everyone enjoys it. Feedback and/or criticism to improve is welcome. I'll try to post more pictures of flowers I took if I can figure it out. lol. This is my first attempt. I am an amateur, so please be kind with your criticism. Thanks.

[gregj1763]

Hi Jo,
There are some wonderful colours in your photo's, alas they all suffer from lack of focus. I suspect this is from being hand held shot at too slower shutter speed.
Your exif data says all the photo's are at 1/60 sec.
If your camera has a manual control increase the shutter speed to freeze motion better or use a tripod.
As for composition, that comes with practice, I'm still working on that myself
But as a guide look to have a single focal point in your photo that the viewer is draw to straight away then they can explore the rest of the image. This focal point doesn't have to be in the middle of the frame.
Do a bit of reading on the rule of thirds.
Look for distracting elements in your photo before you press the shutter button. Things like feet and camera straps in the last photo sort of take away from the effect you are trying to achieve.
Photography is an amazing and rewarding hobby. Stick with it and it will give you immense pleasure.
All the best Greg
Ps, Keep the photo's coming

[tamtamjo]

Hi Greg,

Thank you so much for the critique. Needed to hear those things and suggestions, etc. are what I was hoping for. My husband told me about the tripod too....lol. Don't know why, but didn't even remember my tripod when I was shooting. I will look up the rule of thirds and I noticed the camera strap after posting too. Could of kicked myself in the butt. lol. Again, thanks so much for the reply and I will keep trying.

Jo

[gregj1763]

Pleasure Jo, We are all here to help

[Inkanyezi]

I would like to add, that your camera probably has two features to look for. One is the "macro" setting, which should be used when you get very close to your subject. You cannot zoom in with the macro setting, but you can get sharpness closer.

Another feature that you might have is a compensation setting. It is probably hidden a bit into some menu, but it lets you make images darker or brighter. These flowers with very saturated red colour tend to get over-exposed with the normal setting of exposure, so they need a bit help to be rendered with good tonality. Also when there is a large part of dark background, you might have to sett exposure compensation to minus for the best result. I would suggest that you try shooting intensely red flowers with a compensation of -1 or somewhat more, to darken them a bit. The last image, with rose and camera strap, would have needed both the "macro" setting and maybe -2 compensation.

[tamtamjo]

Thank you so much for your input as well. Really appreciate all the information you gave me. Will try again when I have time.

Jo

[JPS]

Welcome to CiC Jo,
some good advice given here and with that taken on board, I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[tamtamjo]

Thank you very much.

Jo