Quick critique please :D

[Coreysaysyo]

Just looking for anyone to give tips, to maybe improve this picture. Thanks!

DSC02651 by Corey Mathery, on Flickr

 

[tirediron]

To be brutally frank, this image looks like one where you've done all of the things that the text books recommend against; that is: You've shot in harsh, overhead light, the subject is pretty much cenetered in the composition and there are a lot of distracting background elements visible all around the perimeter.

Flower shots are actually quite difficult to make really appealing; have a look at TPF member Old Hippy for some ideas what makes a really stand-out flower image. Ways to improve: Shoot earlier in the day or later in the evening when the sun is lower in the sky and giving a more attractive light. Consider using a polarizing filter to enhance the richness of the colours. Place the main subject off-centre in the composition, and crop more tightly to eliminate as much of the [comparatively] unattractive background material as possible.

 

[Designer]

Besides the mechanics of photography, you should get a book about composition. Any art composition will help.

 

[Coreysaysyo]

Ok, this is what I am looking for. Thanks guys, I want you to be completely honest.

I will start to study more about composition, that seems to be a problem with a lot of my photos.

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

I would change the angle, especially in this harsh lighting. Then I would open the aperture to narrow the DOF to just the flower, blurring out the steam and leaves.

In post I would bump the contrast and colors to make it POP and isolate the ladybug a bit more with contrasting colors (red/green), no reason it should blend in so much.

 

[NathanKing]

Get some books on photographic composition and lighting. Even photos of a flower need compositional framework to make them interesting. For example, the below image uses implied line and repetition as compositional elements. The light adds interest gradually going from shade to full sun, but the sun was behind a cloud so there are no hard shadows. The aperture used was large enough to keep the leaves below from being in focus and distracting.

 

[cdryden]

The first thing that jumped out at me was that the image looks washed out and over exposed. As previously stated, the mid day lighting is causing most of your problem. If you must shoot in this lighting you might want to try an off camera flash to overcome the sun light. Get creative with the angles, try back lighting the flower and things like that. Here is are a few examples where I was in bad light and used a flash to get usable images.