Branching out

[eNo]

One flower and two seigo palm shots with D80 & AF-S 35mm f/1.8







eNo
http://esfotoclix.com

[Doughboy]

I love the first one, the curls in the leaves are very sharp, and you got the texture as well.

Well Done

[Donald]

Another super set. #2 is the one that captures my attention - it offers strong invitation to go on a journey of exploration along the spine of the plant and see what's beyond. Love it. Did you notice the spot on the right hand edge on the top third line?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Eno,

I agree with Bill, #1 is the best, the only (optional) 'improvement' I'd suggest is that the top left corner should be a little less bright and a little less in focus, a couple of PP tweaks would sort that.

The other two are spoilt for me by there just being too much of the main subject out of focus, given the compositions with strong fore-aft content (I note both were shot at f4).

#2 is suffering from sharpened noise, unless deliberate, next time you might want to try sharpening with a slightly higher threshold, to avoid this. Since they are all shot at 400ISO, I can only assume #2 looks the worst of the three in this respect because it is a tighter crop from the full image (? - I'm guessing).

#3 is a little aggressive on the amount and/or radius of sharpening applied for my web viewing taste, it also suffers from blown highlights.

When I make these comments on sharpening, please bear two things in mind;
1) I was making these errors myself not so long ago
2) I am still not an expert, but I can see people repeating my mistakes

That said, I like the compositions on all three shots, I think you have a good eye for that, well done.

Hope that helps,

[eNo]

Dave - thanks for the in-depth feedback. Yes, I am still twiddling with my sharpening settings, and though I think I have it almost figured out, my threshold may have been too low on a couple of these, though I must say this isn't the type of noise that drives me nuts (and I *hate* noise).

Good pick up also on the blown highlights, though in this case, I think they must be so (otherwise the background would be too dull/dark). Judging on comments others have made about the flower image, it seems most folks move right past the blown highlights, so my feel for the shot may be validated somewhat.

[ajith.rajeswari]

Hi eNo,
I liked the first one, very nice patterns and well captured.
The third pic seems to have very narrow DoF so I think increasing DoF will improve the shot ..some info on it by merging multiple shots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJiEw4VCcYU)

I know it is very tough to shoot a white flower in my experience under exposing it will get the right tones.

my 2 cents
~Ajith