Forget me nots

[twood]

_5501904_2logo by Tim Wood, on Flickr

[Wavelength]

So beautiful; do you know its name?

[twood]

They are called Forget-me-Not. They bloom and spread like crazy. Thank you.

[DanK]

Glad that you persisted, and happy to have another flower photographer here.

It's a beautiful specimen and a nice composition. however, I have problems with the out of focus areas. Figuring out how to handle narrow DOF is one of the core parts of flower photography. Some people make use of the narrow DOF and leave large areas out of focus. I generally do the reverse, stacking images to get sharp focus throughout. Both approaches can produce striking images. However, with the first approach, it's often critical to figure out where to place the out of focus areas. As an overgeneralization, they work better when behind the point of sharp focus than in front of it. There are lots of exceptions to this, but in this case, I personally find the out of focus foreground elements to be sort of jarring.

[Manfred M]

Great flower shot Tim.

I'm in general agreement with what Dan has written. The issue with out of focus areas is that they can be distracting elements in the composition. Elements in front of the focus plane tend to be more distracting than the ones behind it, but that is not always the case. Bright areas of the image or areas of high contrast tend to draw the viewer's eye. If these are out of focus, then they are more likely to be distractions.

[pschlute]

Lovely image and lovely lighting too. How did you light it ?

[twood]

This was natural light inside. I used a reflector to enhance and reduce shadows. Thanks for your comments.

[twood]

Thanks for your constructive comments Manfred and Dan. I appreciate your suggestions.