Shooting at the wrong time of day

[Raizels]

I went to the woods to shoot some flowers. It was the middla the afternoon. I know, I know. Most of the pictures didn't have a lighting problem, though - they were blurry. Don't know if it's connected to the time of day or harsh light.
Anyway, this was the one that seemed fit to be uploaded.

 

[Ginu]

Meh its a picture of a pink flower. not bad

I don't think the time of the day has much effect when shooting in the forest as they are normally quite dark and the light doesn't shine through very easy.

Depending on the type of the forest I would think there is less light and most likely I would choose shooting with a flash; perhaps why most of your shots were blurry. Of-course I live in Vancouver and our forests have some tall fir trees and very little light gets through those monsters...

 

[Raizels]

Meh its a picture of a pink flower. not bad

I don't think the time of the day has much effect when shooting in the forest as they are normally quite dark and the light doesn't shine through very easy.

Depending on the type of the forest I would think there is less light and most likely I would choose shooting with a flash; perhaps why most of your shots were blurry. Of-course I live in Vancouver and our forests have some tall fir trees and very little light gets through those monsters...

well, in Israel we get a whole lot of sun, even in the forest...
So, advice? shoot with the flash on?

 

[Ginu]

Meh its a picture of a pink flower. not bad

I don't think the time of the day has much effect when shooting in the forest as they are normally quite dark and the light doesn't shine through very easy.

Depending on the type of the forest I would think there is less light and most likely I would choose shooting with a flash; perhaps why most of your shots were blurry. Of-course I live in Vancouver and our forests have some tall fir trees and very little light gets through those monsters...

well, in Israel we get a whole lot of sun, even in the forest...
So, advice? shoot with the flash on?

Its honestly hard to tell since I've never seen the forests in Israel lol... From experience the forests we have here dont provide enough light even with the sun right above unless its a clear opening.

Best thing is to try with the flash and see what results you get.

For example the flower you posted seems to be in the shade and only a little bit of the bottom right seems to have light.
Out of curiosity what settings are you using on the camera with the blurred photos? ISO/Aperture/Exposure? Maybe post an example

 

[KmH]

The bright spots in the background steal some attention from the subject. Dappled sunlight is almost the worst lighting you can have.

The human eye is naturally drawn to the brightest parts of scene, just as the human eye is naturally drawn to movement.

So, shooting in the forest try and keep the bright spots out of the scene. Also be aware of the camera metering mode. If you use evaluative/matrix metering, all those bright spots will make your subject underexposed.

 

[Raizels]

The bright spots in the background steal some attention from the subject. Dappled sunlight is almost the worst lighting you can have.

The human eye is naturally drawn to the brightest parts of scene, just as the human eye is naturally drawn to movement.

So, shooting in the forest try and keep the bright spots out of the scene. Also be aware of the camera metering mode. If you use evaluative/matrix metering, all those bright spots will make your subject underexposed.

... I don't consciously use any metering.. I'm ignorant on the subject. Could you explain?

 

[Raizels]

Meh its a picture of a pink flower. not bad

I don't think the time of the day has much effect when shooting in the forest as they are normally quite dark and the light doesn't shine through very easy.

Depending on the type of the forest I would think there is less light and most likely I would choose shooting with a flash; perhaps why most of your shots were blurry. Of-course I live in Vancouver and our forests have some tall fir trees and very little light gets through those monsters...

well, in Israel we get a whole lot of sun, even in the forest...
So, advice? shoot with the flash on?

Its honestly hard to tell since I've never seen the forests in Israel lol... From experience the forests we have here dont provide enough light even with the sun right above unless its a clear opening.

Best thing is to try with the flash and see what results you get.

For example the flower you posted seems to be in the shade and only a little bit of the bottom right seems to have light.
Out of curiosity what settings are you using on the camera with the blurred photos? ISO/Aperture/Exposure? Maybe post an example

SOOC:

 

[Rancor]

Metering is how your camera decides what level of light to expose the shot for. There are different types of metering you can set your camera too. The issue with evaluative metering, which may be what you were using, is that it averages all of the light in the entire frame, and bases its levels off of that. So if you have a dim flower, and a bright background, its going to factor in that background, making your flower look even more dim and underexposed. You probably want to set your metering to "center-weight". This will basically only factor in the light from the center area of the frame, which will prevent the previously mentioned issue of factoring in unwanted light.

 

[Stryker]

cover the flower from the sun with your hat, umbrella, bag, palm, or anything you could use as a cover

 

[fokker]

Forget metering for the moment, OP, and learn how to focus your camera properly first. The first shot you posted the focus is somewhere behind the flower - I guess either you are trying to focus too close for the lens you were using, or you are letting the camera pick the focus points for you and it is failing.

 

[KmH]

... I don't consciously use any metering.. I'm ignorant on the subject. Could you explain?

You need to read your camera's user's manual.

Your camera has 4 light metering modes:

1. Spot
2. evaluative
3. partial (approx. 9% at center of viewfinder)
4. centre-weighted average

Rancor did a fairly good job of explaining how Evaluative metering works, but the metering mode effects the accuracy of the in-camea light meter. Your camera user's manual will explain when you should use the other metering modes.

Based on what fokker mentioned, read the user's manual section that explains the focus mode and focus area selections you have available with your camera. It's likely you should also explore what the minimum focus distance is for your lens(s)

 

[Raizels]

Thanks everyone for responding and for the advice. I guess I have some reading to do.:study: