Newb wants critique

[stormbind]

This is a picture that I took last night of a carnation. I bumped up the contrast a little in photoshop.

Should I have cropped a little tighter around the flower. So there is no background in the image at all? Are there other things that I could have done to make the image shout out a little more?
Nick

 

[bogleric]

When taking shots of flowers I try to keep the whole radius of the flower in the shot. As for the background, be certain to set the apeture for a shallow DOF. Even though the background will be there, unless it is someone swalling a ball of fire it won't be too distracting.

To give some more advice I need to know a little more about how you took the picture. What settings, did you use a flash, fill-in flash, etc

 

[stormbind]

I didn't think that I would be posting this pic for critique when I took it so I didn't take notice as to the settings :-( I have a Cannon Digi Rebel XT...set the camera to macro mode and snaped the shot. The flash on the camera was used for this photog.

As far as DOF goes...the peddles in the background are a little blured. I would like to have all the peddles sharp and have the background not in focus. Is it possible to do this with a macro shot?

 

[magicmonkey]

I think there's a bit too much going on for a tighter crop to work, the little bckground it has helps to give it context (IMHO). I'd agree with stormbind about the DOF, a little more would have been nice. If you can reshoot, how about a slighty larger crop, maybe with a backdrop if the background has any vivid colours whic would distract from the image (I tend to use a plain towel as a backdrop, as long as it's not in focus it tends to look fine.) I'd also think about pulling off that dead pettle in the top right as it's a bit distracting...

 

[meotter]

DOF is a bit too shallow for this shot, you only blur the petals of the flower which is your subject (i'm guessing, since there isn't anything else about the flower that is remarkable). if the grass or whatever else was blurred that's one thing, but since your whole focus is the flower, it would also be nice to have the whole flower in the frame.

you can right cick on your original image file and go to properties to see the settings you used.

 

[chroix]

looks good to me. unlike most of the above posters i might have cropped it in a little tighter so none or very little of the background showed

 

[stormbind]

Thank you everyone for all your help. I now have a few new ideas when photographing flowers. Now all I have to do is think of a good bug photo to take

 

[orchidboi]

I agree. I feel the whole flower should be in the frame. I would probably open it up more and let the mass of the flower fall more toward the left center of the photo. The 'fuzzy' background give the flower the focus and adds interest.