Bouganvilla.

[HaseebM]

I was always fond of Bouganvilla and my wife took up the task to grow one in our small backyard. After a year, this is the result. C&C welcome.

[Geoff F]

This is a very difficult subject to photograph well.

Your focus has come out quite well for a fairly wide aperture, and also a higher Iso than I would really want to use.

But for me, using flash hasn't quite worked and the scene appears rather 'artificial'. Flashing botanical subjects is fraught with dangers; but what else is available? I find that sunlight can cause similar issues. Sometimes I do get away with a little bit of flash by setting the camera with manual settings and using some flash exposure compensation to reduce the harshness a little.

Using a custom white balance will help with colour control, but I find unless you are able to use some carefully controllable 'studio type lighting' the only other option is to wait for better natural light with hazy sunshine. Some form of light diffusion can help with harsher sunshine but this does require a bit of 'messing about' to get everything working well.

A long shutter speed is another option under studio conditions but this frequently isn't possible in the 'real world' where there is some subject movement.

[Shadowman]

Congrats to the wife on her efforts, and a nicely captured effort to you.

[IzzieK]

I love bouganvilla, Haseeb. Your wife must be pleased with her effort. I am jealous...'Can't grow them over my way as it will take a lot of space in the house during winter to keep it alive...My sun room is not big enough for all the plants that we put in during winter...

Anyway, maybe you can shoot this in another angle like positioning the stem at the upper LH corner then shooting from a lower angle? Or maybe try zooming in closer so that the flowers all occupy the frame without the distraction of other things around the flower? Just my thoughts...

[HaseebM]

Thank you Jeff, your observations are remarkable. It was very sunny outside after the rains. I used 1/60 at f/5.0 and modified the background with PS.

Thank you John.

Thanks Izzie, she is indeed pleased with her effort and I too like Bouganvilla very much. We are thinking of getting some more colours to plant. I will try the lower angle suggestion as well as zooming in closer and see the results.

[Downrigger]

It's a beauty Haseeb. My suggestion would be that the subject seems to want to be moving to the right of the image, so to me the main subject should not be so much to the right where it looks as though it is moving out of the frame. Rather, I might crop this to center the blossom or even locate it a little left of center.

[IzzieK]

Another idea Haseeb is to separate this image and composite it with your sky photo on the side, just like what you have there in your avatar. Wouldn't that be cute!!!

[HaseebM]

It's a beauty Haseeb. My suggestion would be that the subject seems to want to be moving to the right of the image, so to me the main subject should not be so much to the right where it looks as though it is moving out of the frame. Rather, I might crop this to center the blossom or even locate it a little left of center.

You mean like this?

[HaseebM]

Another idea Haseeb is to separate this image and composite it with your sky photo on the side, just like what you have there in your avatar. Wouldn't that be cute!!!

Hi Izzie, indeed that would be what I would do but even with Remask 4, it is very difficult, I tried.