A flower that I think 'worked' after yesterdays failings

[Rachelsne]

After posting this thread yesterday I did go back and look at the pictures again, and not all were runied by my stupidity of underexposing

I used a spray bottle to give the rose some texture, used my sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lens with a UV filter (its always on there) and my Canon 30d

The picture is still a bit dark on my laptop which means its probably still too dark on calibrated monitors.

The main thing I liked about this was the dof with the diagnal view rather than looking directly down on it. obviously if I reshot this I would not use such a slow shutter speed and I would try and get the bottom of the leaf in the frame on the bottom right of the photo.

please give me feedback-but dont tell me what I already know I guess it helps I can now begin to spot things I need to do better-it proves sitting on the forum all day is helping me although its a shame I cant quite work the camera LOL

Oh and just for fun here are the whole bunch that my husband had sent to me, I left the rose in the vase with the other flowers while shooting it.
:heart: my hubby:blushing:

 

[Judge Sharpe]

:thumbup: Rach- Do you mind if I address you as Rach? This is a borderline great picture. I agree with your assessments of it. A smaller aperture would bring the lower parts of the blossom in to focus and since it is not moving or trying to escape, why not? I would suggest that you add a little indirect light to illuminate the back petals I am afraid that direct light would cause it to wash out. What you did not do was let the light meter fool you into over exposing the white rose. (Whit roses stand for purity don't they?) that is about as pure an image as you can get.
Judge Sharpe

 

[Rachelsne]

:thumbup: Rach- Do you mind if I address you as Rach? This is a borderline great picture. I agree with your assessments of it. A smaller aperture would bring the lower parts of the blossom in to focus and since it is not moving or trying to escape, why not? I would suggest that you add a little indirect light to illuminate the back petals I am afraid that direct light would cause it to wash out. What you did not do was let the light meter fool you into over exposing the white rose. (Whit roses stand for purity don't they?) that is about as pure an image as you can get.
Judge Sharpe

Rach is fine-my friends back in England would call me that

Thanks for the suggestions, I had big glass doors behind me and a room with no other windows, I can imagine how soft lighting behind the flower would give it more definition and pop

Smaller fstop is larger number right?:blushing: I may reshoot and try that, although really I should be cleaning my kitchen cabinets....

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Cleaning kitchen cabinets? RACH, RACH- get you priorities in order, Thats what you have a husband for- so you can do what you want and let him clean the cabinets. Besides, if that avatar is a picture of you, your cabinets haven't had enough time to get to where they need cleaning. Larger number is a smaller hole, and that means less light. Each F-stop number larger is twice as small an opening.
Also there is a hard to explain technique called hyper focus that helps with this type of shot and is based on the DOF of the lens/ aperture to give the maximum field of sharp focus. Don't ask me to explain it on Friday afternoon.
Have fun this weekend and shoot lots.
Judge Sharpe

 

[audiobomber]

The white rose is very pretty.
The vase really needs a better setting than a carpeted corner. The setting spoils the image.

 

[Rachelsne]

I was making the most of my hubby being away, when he is home I want to spend time with him and not clean lol
and it is spring so its time to spring clean!

Audiobomber
thanks
yes the vase shot was really for my blog so I didnt really 'compose' that shot quite how I maybe should have

 

[Overread]

This has worked really well!
As you have seen a greater depth of field would really add to this shot - the background works very well with the white flower - I belive this sort of shot is called "low key" where the background is black - the opposite ( a white background) is a high key shot. So it seems you like low key - might be an idea to look around that subject a little for some inspiration.
Also when shooting one thing that might be an idea is to abuse your digital advantage - when you next take a shot take a series of shots at different apatures - that way you can start to see where you need to be setting your camera to get the best results.
Good work - lets see more

 

[Bifurcator]

Yup, that worked.