First foray into B&W (macro)

[anandonaqui]

So this is my first real foray into B&W, and admittedly, it wasn't my intent. I guess this isn't really macro in the purist sense. I used a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 at 20mm with a 12mm extension, f/32, 20 sec., -2.33 exposure bias.

The flower is actually a very vivid orange, but the black background kept coming up brownish (more on that later). So I decided to turn it to B&W just for kicks and I kinda liked the result (but I'm obviously biased).

Just FYI, the water drops are definitely not dew drops, they're the product of a spray bottle. Is that obvious?

The reason why it was brownish is because I had the white balance wrong (flash instead of incandescent), and I don't have the patience to shoot in RAW (read: I'm too scared/stubborn to learn), otherwise I guess I could have fixed my stupidity with white balance.

C&C is welcome and appreciated. If you would like to comment on the macro aspect of the photo, by all means, go ahead. Thanks!

 

[Frequency]

i think arrangement is good; but lacking sharpness to image; sometimes flowers are kept a bit soft to impart a dreamy effect to that

Regards

 

[ayeelkay]

I agree with Frequency. I like the composition, but it does need to be sharper and it looks very dark to me.

 

[anandonaqui]

Thanks for the input. I think the lack of sharpness is a depth of field issue, but I could be wrong. I'm going to play around with similar compositions, but try using the high focal range technique to see if that helps at all.