Flowers, not quite right

[Nwcid]

I took this image today (along with several others) and while I like it, there is something off about it that I can not figure out.

It was shot over looking a river which is approximately 1000 yards to the sandy beach below.

Can anyone offer comments or suggestions?

 

[snowbear117 48]

Offhand, I think it looks better without the reflection at the very top. There are a few things in the water that could be cloned out, I suppose (left side - a stick or something), but overall I like it.

Was this taken in the early afternoon? Maybe try to bump the contrast a little.

 

[SquarePeg37 8]

In my opinion there are a few issues with this photo. The main thing "wrong" is that it was taken during a very bright sunny day, likely mid day?, so the light is unflattering. For flowers, you are much better off either going out during golden hour or waiting for an overcast day which gives much more appealing light. Additionally, as a subject, it's a bit busy and many of the flowers are past peak. I would try to maybe isolate a few of the healthier flowers either by zooming in or using a shallower dof instead of the wider shot to get them all. Sorry, not trying to be harsh - just trying to be helpful and offer suggestions for next time.

 

[Ysarex87 81]

Any better?

Joe

 

[Fujidave]

In photography Lighting is the most important thing to have, no light means no photo. Then there can be too much light which for me I am trying to learn about it. Good advice from SquarePeg, the lighting during certain times of the day can not help with some shots, if you have to take the shot then, try and get down low and at different angles. Hope this helps.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I think it looks like you were just dealing with rather harsh lighting. I agree about the reflection across the top; you don't really see enough of it to keep it in the frame (good idea, but maybe not for this photo).

I guess you're rather tall... my inclination is to want to step to the left, and frame lower. Maybe try more than one vantage point; I might even have tried from above looking down over the flowers and see how that looked. Some of the flowers are turned the other way so you see more stems than petals.

This is certainly not the worst I've seen by any stretch. I feel like people need to be aware of moving their feet more, walk around, scrunch down, etc. and change the vantage point.

 

[Nwcid]

Thank you for all of the input. The image was shot at 0900, but the light was bright. There was minimal wind and the water was super smooth. I was trying for the blue background of the water, contrasting with the yellow and green of the flowers making them stand out a bit. To me it feels like the foreground and background are not separated.

While I am tall, I was sitting on the ground at eye level with the flowers.

Shot was ISO 100, 40mm, f 7.1, 1/800.

I do see the barbed wire leading off the bottom left, I was not going to take the time to remove it, if I can not get the rest of the image the way I was going for.

Here is another shot that was done wider.

 

[DSP121]

I took this image today (along with several others) and while I like it, there is something off about it that I can not figure out.

It was shot over looking a river which is approximately 1000 yards to the sandy beach below.

Can anyone offer comments or suggestions?

Amazing Click!

 

[jcdeboever]

Tough light, tough flower. The flower by itself can be somewhat interesting but a bunch of them just doesn't do it for me. I've tried taking pics of them many times and they just never seem to appeal to me. They grow wild all over the place in Michigan. They seem to attract weird bugs, hence the reason I have made various attempts at them. I think the most interesting one I captured was a back shot of one. Of course, all of this is just my dumb opinion.

 

[Nwcid]

Tough light, tough flower. The flower by itself can be somewhat interesting but a bunch of them just doesn't do it for me. I've tried taking pics of them many times and they just never seem to appeal to me. They grow wild all over the place in Michigan. They seem to attract weird bugs, hence the reason I have made various attempts at them. I think the most interesting one I captured was a back shot of one. Of course, all of this is just my dumb opinion.

Of all the shots I took in that session, this is my favorite. I do wish the top one had more petals, but it is what it is. It is just hard trying to pass up capturing the Yellows, Greens an Blues as you see them in nature.