Which is the better picture? Is either good?

[michaeltrefry]

Hoping to get some feedback on how to improve my photography. This was a flower (Bird of Paradise) lit by the changing colors of bridge lights in the background.

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi,

i love the psychedelic and almost abstract look to these pictures, well done! out of the 2 i prefer no 1 because the focus on the flower is a little sharper, maybe a smaller aperture than the 1.8 you used would help the depth of field and focus, but not too much because we dont want to spoil the great background!

[Shadowman]

You could also change the shape of those background colors using different aperture, shutter speed. Nice images.

[scubagrl]

Orange and blue are complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel), so I really like the outstanding color contrast of number one. They are both beautiful shots, though. I like the extended stalk in number two.

[Medtech]

Nice shot, I like #1 the abstract color background goes great with that abstract flower. And your focus is better on # one.

[Horoscope Fish]

I like them. I think they're both good shots. What I think would make them great shots is cropping them both into vertical shots to better isolate and emphasize the subject. I tried to post edited versions but it seems I'm not allowed to upload photos.

Edit: Okay, converting the file to a .tiff seems to have solved the upload problem. Here's a suggested crop... Apologies if edits are frowned upon; will delete if requested.



...

[ajsmith]

I like No. 1 better too because of the complimentary colors and I think the suggestion to crop to a vertical format enhances the subject. Nice colors... pretty pictures.

[Mike McWatts]

Living in South Africa, I feel that your picture of a Strelitzia (Crane Flower) does not do it justice. The flower heads, resembling the crest of a crane (thus the common name) are usually 200mm in length and to reveal their true beauty, should be photographed side on and with greater depth of field. They also do not usually grow in city areas, so the bright city lights do nothing to enhance the natural environment in which they are found. Shooting at f1.8 is fine for isolating a small portion of a subject, but does not work in this case.