Help! What can I do to make this photo better?

[runnah]

Would one lighten the Mona Lisa?

If the it was underexposed and blurry, then yes.

 

[woahnikky]

I shot it in camera raw so the exposure can be changed. As for the blurriness, I was trying my best. I was there for an hour shooting.

 

[Granddad]

I'll be brutally honest, if it were my photo I'd bin it and start again. I've often spent an hour or more (much more) trying to put a concept onto film and failing. The trick is to recognise when you haven't succeeded and to stop wasting time trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

Someone on here once said (or had a signature line): "The difference between a good photographer and a bad photographer is the size of his waste basket."

 

[ryanwaff]

Well if a reshoot is ever in the books, one way to combat your bluriness is increase your shutter speed significantly. You were shooting around 1/4 sec which really is too slow. (im presuming you were shooting without a tripod?) Your ISO was at 200, so you can increase that by quite a fair wack as well, which will compensate for the faster shutter speed.

But as for the concept, posing and overall setup of the image, I love it! It really conveys the message that you are trying to get across.

Because your profile says your photos are OK to edit, I thought I'd have a quick bash, and here is my rendition:


First I did some RAW processing to try and salvage it and remove the noise.
Then I opened it in photoshop and added a B&W layer set to overlay.
Adjusted the curves to correct the colour cast
Added in a dark red vignette
Adjusted the hue and saturation of the rose and its stem to make it appear withered and dead.

Having done the processing now, I still agree with Granddad: Reshoot.

 

[jowensphoto]

Do you have a speed light/external flash? A homemade snoot is easy to make! DIY Grid and Snoot ? And What They Do

 

[gsgary]

Deleting it would make it better for me

 

[ceejtank]

Proper exposure would be good here. I'm squinting at all these pics.

 

[gw2424]

You can make a snoot with printer paper... Just sayin'

 

[ph0enix]

There is something to the idea but the photo doesn't have impact (my opinion). I understand that you want it to feel dark but the key elements need to be better lit and the composition could use work.