Bud

[mammarazzi]

Rose Bud + friend

[Donald]

Joanne

I like the angle at which you've positioned the bud within the frame. It is easy on the eye and makes a nice shape within the image.

Am I right in thinking that you seem to have a very, very small depth of field on this? I wonder if such a shallow DoF was necessary? It seems to me that not even the whole of the bud and its leaves (front to back) are in focus. Apologies if I'm not seeing this properly.

[Geoff F]

The tip of the bud seems sharp so I suspect this is partially a camera angle problem, although the roundness of the bud may also be causing depth of field difficulties. Possibly a little bit of selective sharpening will firm up the softer areas.

And I would tone down the bright spots in the background a little.

Otherwise, a good photo.

[paulwilbur]

Try this and notice the the rose leaf petal is frontal. Try to use a 3/4 view and show more petals of the flower

:
paul

[Katy Noelle]

Rose Bud + friend

Hi, Joanne! Good work with the simple background and bokeh and lovely color. Oh, dear, now, I have a whole bunch of unorganized thoughts. I'll take a stab at it. Lighter, larger, in focus - these are all attributes that draw more attention to the main subject. This means that, in this case I want to focus on the foremost petal - the rose seems like it should be the theme of the photo - but there are other parts of this photo that are distracting me or keeping it from really catching my attention. After reading the comments and considering the photo, for a moment, I saw the bug and, if I'm not mistaken, it's in focus. I would never have seen it, though, if you hadn't mentioned it, and, even then, it took me a while to see what you were talking about. I think it's because it's in shadow and too small. I just mention this because your photo has merit - a loving eye took it - but, I think that it will help you in the future to refine your vision if you

A) Identify what is the main subject and what you want to say about it. (the story)

B) Make sure that the lighting is right for it. That the main theme has enough light and if it isn't, is it possible to do something to improve it - i.e. bounce light back onto it with a reflector or piece of white art board.)

C) Eliminate anything that would distract from your main point. (which you already did a pretty good job at)

Hm, now I want to go work on it some more, myself. For me, it takes practice!

[mammarazzi]

Thank you for all your comments, very new to this so grateful for all your help. It's surprising what you miss until someone points it out. Will try harder next time

Joanne

[Katy Noelle]

Thank you for all your comments, very new to this so grateful for all your help. It's surprising what you miss until someone points it out. Will try harder next time

Joanne

Well, wow! You're doing really well for very new! It's funny that you say, "try harder". Suddenly, I'm just observing myself - I can get tied in knots trying harder. Attempting to grow in concentration and paying heed - that's fun and almost ....light. You just made me realize that about myself, is all. Why, thank you!