Golden Alexander - C&C Please

[ShaneS]

This image fared reasonably will in mini comp #794 and I would like to know what might take it over the top so to speak.


f8 1/250 ISO100 (50 mm prime on a DX body so 75mm full frame)

There is a part of me that likes the mystery that the shallow depth of field presents but I also wonder if that hurts the overall image? Does the focus point (base of the stem) and angle of the shot (from slightly underneath) take away from the image? I guess I wonder if I took the safe route in terms of framing the shot and should have been more aggressive one way or the other (i.e shoot straight on, up or down)? What about PP?

Overall C&C appreciated.

While this image may not be quite 'it' (and I won't have an opportunity to re-shoot) I continue to try out new things and seek feedback so as to improve in the future.

[terrib]

Shane, I frequently don't "get" the creative shot so take what I say with a grain of salt. My first reaction to this photo was that it was out of focus, because I didn't immediately see the point of focus. I can't tell you how to improve it because my shot would be a boring deep DOF shot. I do like the bright background.

I'll be interested to see what some of the more creative people have to say.

[Mike Buckley]

The perspective of shooting from below is absolutely wonderful!

If you come upon a similar situation, try keeping everything the same except maintaining everything or at least almost everything in focus. For me, when you have so many clusters of buds (or are they blossoms?), trying to figure which ones are in focus is confusing. Indeed, the fact that I have to figure out which ones are sharp is an obstacle. Alternatively, try keeping the stem and everything in front of it in focus.

[Kaye Leggett]

I enjoy photographing from flowers from the less than obvious angle, not always successfully. I think it may have been better if you had got right underneath or right on top as you suggest. And then chosen one of the flower heads as the focal point since when we look at flowers it is that bit we focus on not the stem. Your depth of field should be OK then as you don't want to go too shallow and risk not getting one flower in full focus.

[ShaneS]

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I must admit that I thought at f8 the image was going to have a greater depth of field that has. I think that this is due to the fact that I was very close to the flower with my new lens? If that is the case then I need to spend some time analyzing a depth of field calculator to get the desired result in the future...

[Geoff F]

That is a rather complex subject, Shane.

I think I would have used a narrower aperture (say F11 to F14) which would have still produced a blur from front to back. And made sure that the closest part was actually the sharpest.

So the depth range went from sharp foreground to blurred background which would give an apparent greater depth. Having the closest part out of focus tends to cause some confusion over the actual depth.

But it is always difficult to reproduce a three dimensional subject in a two dimensional photograph.

I suppose you could try a little bit of Local Contrast Enhancement; but this is so easy to overdo and actually end up with an enhancement which is worse than the original.