Flower or weed.

[jake337]

I enjoyed the colors. Feel free to let me know what you like and don't like.
D90
tokina 100mm f2.8 macro
1/200
f11
Iso200
sb600 on camera/diffused

 

[rambler]

Great background and colors, but the lack of sharp focus bothers me. I know it is very difficult, if not impossible to get focus of parts that are not equidistant from the lens, but yo need to narrow down your subject and be sure to get that in as sharp a focus as possible. (at least for me!)

Example:

What is the most important part of this bloom for you in this image? If it is the black stigmas and the pinkish center, then zoom closer and get them in focus.

You have two or three of the large purple pieces in focus, but the others out of focus. A smaller aperture might get more depth of field even though more background might appear, but that might help. Did you try spot metering, or center metering? Sometimes spot can change the lighting and background.

If the center is you main subject, maybe zoom right down on it from above filling the frame with it which would not include all or any of the large purple pieces.

The green"ball" just at the base might be interesting, too.

Beautiful bloom. I can see why you stopped to take the pic.

 

[jake337]

I always spot meter. I was using flash for this phot though. I agree about the DOF. I was at .45m and F11. I really wanted the whole bloom to fill the frame and have the nice background so shooting from above and moving in more wasn't an option. I wanted the center black and pink parts to be sharp but stopping down more would have induced some diffraction. I agree a slightly higher point of view would have kept the appealing background and gotten more of the center withing the already shallow depth of field.

Thank you for your imput. You gave me ideas to think about the next bloom I attempt.