I'm not sure how I feel about this (shot of rose).

Trenton Romulox · Feb 12, 2008

I got some colored gel filters for my two SB-800s last week, so I decided this was a good time to try them out as my father bought my mother roses today, and I figure, 'Hey, she won't miss one.' So yeah, I set up my SB-800s, threw some green and red filters on them, whipped out my 50mm f/1.4 and busted out this shot. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. And I'm not sure that the cement floor I was shooting on really works for this shot, but I guess this shot was more of an experiment than anything. But, to be honest, if I actually liked this shot, I'd probably not mention that it was an experiment. So yeah, hit me with your hardest critique. Thanks for looking.

Rose:

P.S. JPEG compression was pretty hard on this shot. And yeah, the rose itself is a bit soft. And there seems to be some saturation issues on the rose itself. So, if you want to touch on those issues some more, feel free.

edtek · Feb 12, 2008

gimme a sec i'll touch it up, but i love it!

edtek · Feb 12, 2008

only thing i did was less shadow, more sharpness!

Trenton Romulox · Feb 12, 2008

Thanks for the edit, edtek, I like what you did! I'm gonna reshoot tomorrow, there's lots of roses to choose from. One thing that I'm wondering about, looking at the shot, does the fact that the leaf on the stem is red because of the flash's gel filter work for, or against the overall appeal of the shot?

Thanks again for the comments and the great edit. :] Much appreciated.

lifeafter2am · Feb 12, 2008

I, personally, would rather not see the leaf red... but, it does not detract from the shot overall.

Trenton Romulox · Feb 12, 2008

lifeafter2am said:
I, personally, would rather not see the leaf red... but, it does not detract from the shot overall.

Thanks for your input, I think I'm gonna do the reshoot tomorrow and try different lighting setups. This shooting tonight was really just to try a bit out, see what works, what doesn't, and I'll try and bust out some more variety in tomorrow's session. I might even do it tonight, I mean, I have insomnia anyways, so I spend a lot of time lying around at night...might as well do something HAHA.

Thanks again for the input, much appreciated.

lifeafter2am · Feb 12, 2008

Trenton Romulox said:
Thanks for your input, I think I'm gonna do the reshoot tomorrow and try different lighting setups. This shooting tonight was really just to try a bit out, see what works, what doesn't, and I'll try and bust out some more variety in tomorrow's session. I might even do it tonight, I mean, I have insomnia anyways, so I spend a lot of time lying around at night...might as well do something HAHA.

Thanks again for the input, much appreciated.

You and me both buddy!

Trenton Romulox · Feb 12, 2008

lifeafter2am said:
You and me both buddy!

High-five!

Insomniacs UNITE!
:hugs:

Fang · Feb 12, 2008

I think it looks great.

kundalini · Feb 12, 2008

Focal point seems to be on the leaves rather than the flower. The saturation on the flower is overpowering. I don't think the colored gels work for this subject.

aadhils · Feb 12, 2008

I'm still rather an amateur at Photoshop. I just thought I'd play aroudn a bit :mrgreen:

Trenton Romulox · Feb 12, 2008

kundalini said:
Focal point seems to be on the leaves rather than the flower. The saturation on the flower is overpowering. I don't think the colored gels work for this subject.

Yeah, I see that now, about the focal point. Thanks for your comments.

spiffybeth · Feb 12, 2008

i dont like it. i dont have reasons why, but i looked at it and said, i dont like it.
sorry.

Sw1tchFX · Feb 13, 2008

Simply put, you can't rescue this image without reshooting it.

There's tonal block in the petals, resulting in a complete loss of detail, the concrete looks sharper than the subject, you need to use softer lighting - the shadows are too deep and sharp, you have cross lighting, but no fill, and there's alot of dead space that adds little balance to the composition.

Try again, without the gels, softer lighting, and softer setting.

Trenton Romulox · Feb 13, 2008

Sw1tchFX said:
Simply put, you can't rescue this image without reshooting it.

There's tonal block in the petals, resulting in a complete loss of detail, the concrete looks sharper than the subject, you need to use softer lighting - the shadows are too deep and sharp, you have cross lighting, but no fill, and there's alot of dead space that adds little balance to the composition.

Try again, without the gels, softer lighting, and softer setting.

Try again with all that, and end up with what? Another shot of a rose? I appreciate what you're saying, and most of your critique is spot on, but if I follow all those tips, will I just end up with another cookie-cutter shot of a rose that's been done a thousand times before? Part of what I was trying to do, I guess, was create a shot that looked fresh, or different. And yeah, I made some bad technical errors (mis-focused, too saturated), but I don't want what I'm doing to become just another shot, you know?

Thanks for the comments, Switch. And even though I'm getting sort of anti-traditional, and to a point, anti-the better way to do things, I'm gonna do a reshoot later today hopefully, and I'll certainly try out all the things you just suggested I do, because I want to give what you told me a fair shake. Even if I want to use my gel filters and use harsh lighting, I'll give your way a go too HAHA. Thanks again for the comments, Switch, and everyone else.