Flowers - plain and simple

[Overread]

Some of my recent (ish) work with flowers in the garden whilst using my tripod and main lens. I think I have managed to find the strongest subject for the sigma - for wildlife it loeses too much quality and clarity when at the longer focal lengths with further off targets; whilst for true macro of insects and such it fails to get proper 1:1 ratio -- but for flowers the lens work very very well.

All taken with: canon 400D and sigma 70-300mm DG f4-5.6 macro

at: f16, ISO 200, 1/100sec
link to larger:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/3234511241_4efa243bb6_o.jpg

at: f5, ISO 100, 1/80sec
link to larger:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3508/3235313764_9c87dceaa4_o.jpg
not sure why I was on f5 at the time - must have been intending to shoot something else or left the settings on from a different subject

at: f16, ISO 100, 1/6sec
link to larger:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/3234464099_bcc9550bcd_

Anyone got any comments or crits?

 

[LaFoto]

I have that same lens.
And have come to the conclusion that yes, it is helpful for some, but less helpful for other kinds of photography. It does not perform at its best when pulled out to the max. Gives you blurriness, noise (even at low ISO) and generally is not the sharpest (but what would you expect to get for € 169.- ???).

But it is a good one for flower photos! Indeed it is.

And you have some REALLY nice flowers in your garden, by the look of these!

The first is my favourite by far. Starting with the background blurriness AND COLOUR ... and going on with the fact that the rose is backlit of sorts (top lit it is, hm?). The almost diagonal line of the twig, which continues in the form of the leaf on the (camera) right of the flower is also a nice element.

 

[Overread]

Thanks - glad to see that I am not the only one to come to such a conclusion about the lens!
And yes they are top lit from the camera popup flash - I have been meaning to stick some toilet paper infront of it to try and diffuse the light a little more

 

[MelodySoul]

I'm very drawn to the first one, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

[Rachelsne]

I have this lens and am in complete agreement,

nice pictures there

 

[Chiller]

Nicely captured. Im leaning towards the last as my favorite. I find the exposure on the brighter spots a little better. I have two sigma lenses..170-500 and the 28-300. Both have the same issue. I find at the long end of the barrel, there is a lot of image quality loss.
Well done on these. :thumbup: