Yellow Rose

[Katy Noelle]

I've been working on these for three days, now. I'm struggling with getting the light right and really capturing the "essence" of these roses in a genuine way. Do these speak at all? C&C, please!

All shot with the 60mm lens

Och! It's a lot of yellow!

Day 1



AV 1/13 f4.5 ISO200

Day 2



AV shutter2 .67exposure bias f22 ISO100


Day 3 - In the light of day



AV 1/16 f14 ISO100


Except, I think the color is a little off - I can work on this one later.

Oh, and this is an idea that I've been working on from the Abstract nature theme.



AV 1.3 f14 ISO100

[rob marshall]

I do like the abstractness of #1. A good composition. with #2, I'm looking for an initial point of focus. I do like the last one but it might be slightly better with a plain coloured background - perhaps black?

[wilgk]

I love the last one - it brings to mind the dresses in the saloons (calamity Jane - Annie get your gun style)....maybe with Rob's Black background and even a flip or rotate might be another idea?

Of the others - the deep colour in #1 is lovely.

[Wirefox]

Katy, No 1 is the pick for me. No 2 is a little bright and lacks contrast (easy fix in PP). If it is supposed to look floaty and ethereal it does not quite get there. Maybe because the area of focus is not quite where the eye expects it to be. As Rob points out good composition. No3 suffers from a similar problem to No 2 The out of focus area bottom right is distracting. This is what I was wittering on about with three dimensional composition. With shallow DoF its not just the about positioning of the subject/s in the frame two dimensionally you also need to be aware of how the sharp. blurry and transitional areas will sit within the composition. No 4 is very well captured and beautifully sharp. I can only reiterate what the our resident florist says above - a separation from the natural background would work far better here. Although t is a bit cliche try adding strategically placed water drops with a dropper. It can add interest and brings the flower to life somehow.

Very good work though Katy these images are certainly highlighting your development since joining CiC

[Katy Noelle]

No3 suffers from a similar problem to No 2 The out of focus area bottom right is distracting. This is what I was wittering on about with three dimensional composition. With shallow DoF its not just the about positioning of the subject/s in the frame two dimensionally you also need to be aware of how the sharp. blurry and transitional areas will sit within the composition.

Very good work though Katy these images are certainly highlighting your development since joining CiC

That's why I tried these at several fstops. I know I have one with more focus but just liked this one. I can rework it at some other time. At the mo., I'm sick of them.

Thanks for the encouragement, though!

[rebeccalouisephotography]

I love number two, I feel it is very feminine and soft. It is exteremly pretty. Well done!

[Donald]

I love number two, I feel it is very feminine and soft. It is exteremly pretty. Well done!

I'm glad someone else said it first because, of course, I'm a real he-man and can't be seen saying namby-pamby things like that.

I felt #1 was a bit in-my-face and was more drawn to the subtlety and gentleness of #2. In know that it is not high on contrast, but .... that's what I sort-of like (he said, almost apologetically).

[Katy Noelle]

Well, I see that you all agree with me but not with each other. (Rebecca, I love having you around! We see similarly, I think.)

Steve, here is the one with more dof.



Looking at it, though, it seems that I didn't post process the color in the same way. Which brings up some technical things that I'm working on. These are just some innocent newbie photographer questions (I'm sure the wording is wrong ):

- It's hard to take photos of very saturated colors! I seemed to do okay with the roses - the colors weren't completely blown - I could recover it in post processing, no problem. So, is it easier to blow out very saturated colors when they're darker? I remember reading, last October, about stopping down the exposure on highly saturated colors. (Sorry, awkwardly worded question!)

- Finding the right place to focus with the right depth of field - I don't think that I completely understand how to find the hyperfocal distance and/or the optimal focus distance. (McQs tutorials on this are really good, though.) I mean, do you all carry the little calculators in your pockets to figure it all out? What did photographers do before ipads (or whatever they're called.) Is it just something that one learns to intuit? I'm assuming/noticing that it's something that would apply in "macro" - they are just micro landscapes, it seems.

- Something else that I need to work on is what is blurry and what is in focus in the foreground. Like you said, Steve:

The out of focus area bottom right is distracting. This is what I was wittering on about with three dimensional composition. With shallow DoF its not just the about positioning of the subject/s in the frame two dimensionally you also need to be aware of how the sharp. blurry and transitional areas will sit within the composition.

I don't always want to just take perfectly/fully in focus to the four corners photos but I do need to figure out what works well compostitionally. I think that a big blurry part in the foreground blocks the viewer from being drawn into the photo, perhaps???

That's a lot to answer. Even if I get some info filled in, I'll be happy.

Here are some photos that I took, yesterday. I want to work on them more, today, and would love your input.





I wanted to know what you think about the background on this one but the next flower is, I think, better photographed - clearer, etc. (it's just missing part of itself in the bottom - oops!)






As for the rest? "Calamity Jane" is right, kay! I was thinking that the white looked like ruffles. But, Rob, I didn't want a black background, I was originally hoping for something that was more like glowing blue.

I got the idea from this one, which was just a practice shot.



I worked on it, yesterday, but need to work on them more, I think.



If you made it this far through this mammoth response - thank you!