D90 Flowers 1 of 2

[lvcrtrs]

Well, I've tried low light and lanscape (scenery), so now I'm going to go for flowers. Facing all kinds of challenges. Can't figure why an f stop one time seems to give a lot of DOF and another time doesn't. I'm finding that some monomchrome flowers while nice to look at with your eyes, are totally flat in a pictures. Tried to turn of the ADL a few times hoping to get more contrast. Again, just trying different things and asking here when I'm stuck. Constructive feedback is always a good thing. I read somewhere on this site that the focus is about 1/3 in front of your focus point and 2/3 behind. I think that is very helpful to know too.

In-camera Sharpening was up on all of these. How much I'm not sure. Number 1 was one of the first picture batches for me and I'll bet that was set at 9 (0-9). I've since turned it down to 7 after reading most people are using 6 or 7.


1. Spider Mum? F13, 1/60, 200, 45mm, Pattern Meter, Ap Priority

2. Red Pointy Flower F8, 1/200, 200, 105mm, Pattern Meter, Ap Priority

3. Hibiscus F16, 1/60, 200, 105, Pattern, Ap Priority

4. Cactus F5, 1/100, 200, 52mm, Pattern Meter, Normal Program

5. Milkweed right? F16, 1/30, 450, 170mm, Center weighted meter, Ap priority

6. Milkweed left? F16, 1/30, 200, 200mm, Center weighted meter, Ap priority

 

[Overread]

Remember that depth of field is strongly linked to distances as well as focal length- compare shots 2 and 6 - 2 is at f8, but the background is rather clear, whilst shot 6 the aperture is smaller but the background is well blured.
In these shots the further away the background is from the main subject the more blur - also the longer the focal length of the lens used, again the more background blur you get in a shot.

As for these shots I do like what I see - and the last I especally like!
I would say keep an eye on your backgrounds though - 2 and 4 seem to be suffering, I dont think its as bad for 3 (it seems to blend well together).

Good work and keep at it

 

[DScience]

Yes I agree with overread about the backgrounds being a bit 'busy'. One of the difficult things about shooting flowers is you often times have to choose the aperture that is going to be most appealing for the background rather than the subject itself. To get a crystal clear flower all the way through, most of the time you'll need a smaller aperture, but that usually leads to a 'busy' background. Unless it's a shot like #6 where the BG is far away from the subject. The other alternative is to us a larger aperture creating a smaller DOF, which in turn reduces the 'total' sharpness of the flower. This can allow you to isolate your subject from the BG, much like #6 is.

 

[lvcrtrs]

Remember that depth of field is strongly linked to distances as well as focal length- compare shots 2 and 6 - 2 is at f8, but the background is rather clear, whilst shot 6 the aperture is smaller but the background is well blured.
In these shots the further away the background is from the main subject the more blur - also the longer the focal length of the lens used, again the more background blur you get in a shot.

As for these shots I do like what I see - and the last I especally like!
I would say keep an eye on your backgrounds though - 2 and 4 seem to be suffering, I dont think its as bad for 3 (it seems to blend well together).

Good work and keep at it

Overread, see if I understand.
Using the same F stop:
The farther the background from the focus point the blurrier is will be.
The more I zoom (eg. using 200mm instead of 18mm) the blurrier the background will be because the DOF actually covers less area?

Thank you for the help. Look for critters later if you will. Nothing to great, lot's of room for help. I'll try to get them up by days end.