Lone flower

[Ironlegs]

I just wanted to share this picture with you guys that i took yesterday. As i was walking around i found this one little flower in middle of nothing and it was actually on light, so it looked kinda awesome. As far as you can tell, i am a beginner. Thanks for feedback.

 

[limr33 3]

I like the intention, but there's too much around the flower - try a tighter crop. It's also a bit underexposed. Third, it might be my eyes so take this one with a grain of salt, but the focus looks off. Dandelion seems a bit soft but the grass around it is sharper.

 

[Braineack]

lol @ flower. I spend a lot of time in my yard digging those weeds out

 

[limr33 3]

lol @ flower. I spend a lot of time in my yard digging those weeds out

You would have hated me as a child, then. We used to pick them and blow all the fuzz off. If you got everything off in one go, you'd get to make a wish. I must have facilitated the growth of thousands of dandelions that way

 

[Ironlegs]

Limr, it's post-processed I wanted to make it look dark cause i am sad these days so i wanted to use it to express my feelings... so i failed. About the focus off... it might be cause i was stupid and used manual focus.

Braineack, i forgot the name... i just looked it up and realised its a dandelion. ^^

 

[Braineack]

I blame my neighbor, he just lets them grow and they blow into my lawn.

anyway, the sun spot on the grass fights for for my eye, maybe reduce it?

 

[Ironlegs]

I blame my neighbor, he just lets them grow and they blow into my lawn.

anyway, the sun spot on the grass fights for for my eye, maybe reduce it?

I don't know how to do that. I am still a newbie.

 

[limr33 3]

Limr, it's post-processed I wanted to make it look dark cause i am sad these days so i wanted to use it to express my feelings... so i failed. About the focus off... it might be cause i was stupid and used manual focus.

Braineack, i forgot the name... i just looked it up and realised its a dandelion. ^^

Funny - I've been trying similar shots for similar reasons lately. They're tricky because there needs to be a clear reason why they're dark. Darkness alone isn't enough to convey sadness. I haven't gotten a satisfying image yet, but that doesn't mean we don't keep trying.

I never use auto focus, so I wouldn't call your choice to use manual "stupid'. Tricky at times, maybe, but not stupid!

 

[Ironlegs]

I see what you mean. But it might have been stupid for a NEWBIE to use manual focus I have an AWESOME idea for a photo and i am really looking forward to it. I just need to buy a heart and then i will create an epic picture i hope. That will express my feelings so much.

EDIT: Not darkness alone to convey sadness, the Dandelion is alone and the picture is dark, so it means i feel lonely and sad i think.

 

[pgriz]

Actually, manual focus is fine. I use it all the time when I want to be absolutely sure of the focus placement. However, to facilitate that, I usually also have the camera on a tripod, and I use live-view at 5x or 10x to get the focus where I want it. It is also a good opportunity to scan the edges of the frame to see if I'm including anything extraneous, and whether the overall placement of the subject in the frame looks balanced. This approach works well with still life, people under your control/direction, landscape... but not so much with moving subjects. So you pick your battles.

As far as this image is concerned, you're not letting the picture tell us what YOU found compelling about this dandelion head. If it's the roundness of the head compared to the spikiness of the grass, then a much tighter crop would signal to the viewer what they are supposed to look at. If the idea was to show a lonely flower, then a way to do that would be to put the flower at a corner, and not at the center since at the center the flower is the center of attention. Picture-making is partly technical, and partly story-telling, where the arrangement of the elements allows us to figure out what you wanted us to see. Think of a single picture as a short story, with a beginning, middle and ending. The beginning is where your eye goes when it first sees the image, and we're kinda hardwired to look to eyes (if the subject has eyes), or the brightest or sharpest portions of the image. After landing on the starting point, the eye will explore the image, and other elements of the image (lines, curves, broad areas) tell us where we should look next - this usually is the foreground and/or background that allows us to figure out the context. Finally, we leave the image, and a "good" photograph will have a natural exit point for the eye gaze. Obviously, not every image follows this script, but it is a useful metaphor to use when constructing a single image.

 

[Ironlegs]

Wow... i will have to learn soooooooo much that i can't even imagine it. I will try to create similar picture later, the weather kinds sucks now. Thanks for your constructive feedback.

 

[pgriz]

Wow... i will have to learn soooooooo much that i can't even imagine it. I will try to create similar picture later, the weather kinds sucks now. Thanks for your constructive feedback.

This is an old thread/post that I wrote some time back, but it may be relevant to what you may be trying to do. see: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/.../227575-deliberate-act-taking-photograph.html