Beautiful flower

[Jleon99]

This afternoon after the rain, I could not hold myself to take this shot.
Nikon D3100
F5.6
55mm
1/20
ISO400



Comments are welcome. Thank you.

[mythlady]

Javier, this is really pretty -- I might crop on the top and left to give greater focus on the flowers -- I don't think that extra space is contributing a lot to the picture, and a closer crop will let us see the drops on the flowers more. I can see why you found this appealing!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

I (think) can see what you were trying to achieve here, but for a variety of small reasons, it hasn't quite worked for me.

This is going to look like a long list, but don't get dis-heartened, each of these on their own would be a small problem, it is just unfortunate they all conspired at once.

Looking at the shot info (and thanks for providing that);
a) A narrower aperture e.g. f11 or f16 would have provided more depth of field, the blooms on left and their drops are soft
b) not sure if camera shake or subject movement in wind has caused the softness
in all of the above, a tripod would have helped.
c) There is quite a lot of blown pale background showing between the leaves and these distract from the raindrops, which should be the brightest thimgs in shot - possibly if you had shot from a fraction lower and from more to the right, these might have been minimised or avoided.

Anyway, here's the result of a crop, (slight) rotate, dealing with blown background peeking through leaves, Local Contrast Enhancement, 3 passes of USM sharpening and a downsize to 700px.



The sharpening is really over done now, which is why focus and depth of field are worth getting right in camera, too difficult afterwards!

Hope that helps,

[Glenn NK]

I agree with Dave's comments.

I'd like to emphasize the comment about background - so many otherwise great flower shots are weakened by forgetting about the background. And I never shoot flowers without a tripod - I think it's a waste of time.

Glenn

http://www.naturescapes.net/portfoli....php?cat=24479

[PopsPhotos]

It appears to me as if you did a bit of cloning or other PP on the blossum in the back left. Either that or there was a rain drop on your lens.

I do like the photo, though.

Pops