Still life

[Fox Paw]

Criticisms would be welcome.

 

[Sidewinder]

Hi there,
just wanted to add some comments as requested.
While the overall composition is good, the first thing I realize is that you seem to have some issues with the focus, the picture is not as sharp as I'd expect it to be. Furthermore it lacks a bit of contrast and the overall picture is a bit too underexposed for my taste. I know that you probably did that on purpose, but especially the dark areas could make use of a bit more detail. Finally, you got some serious artifacts in your picture, I am not sure if they are compression artifacts or sharpening artifacts or artifacts as a result from the upload on some limited webspace, fact is they are there and they shouldn't be there.

I hope this helped a little, if you keep working on the issues, I think you can get something out of a composition like that.

 

[Fox Paw]

Thanks very much for the help. That gives me some clues as to things I'm doing wrong.

 

[mmcduffie1]

i like the lighting

 

[nab_55]

I love how the light shines from behind the flowers. It makes it real art. Very well done!

 

[Fox Paw]

Thanks.

 

[abraxas]

Nice composition. Maybe crop some off the left & top. Call it ~soft focus and move on to the next challenge.

 

[Fox Paw]

"Nice composition. Maybe crop some off the left & top. Call it 'soft focus' and move on to the next challenge."

Thanks. I wasn't aiming for soft focus but it was about a twenty-five second exposure. I suspect that over that amount of time, my breathing and my movements disturbed the air enough to move the subject and make it not quite sharp. Live and learn.

 

[abraxas]

"Nice composition. Maybe crop some off the left & top. Call it 'soft focus' and move on to the next challenge."

Thanks. I wasn't aiming for soft focus but it was about a twenty-five second exposure. I suspect that over that amount of time, my breathing and my movements disturbed the air enough to move the subject and make it not quite sharp. Live and learn.

Yep, live and learn.

No exif data, long exposure? What was the aperture? Autofocus? Remote shutter switch? Rubber goodies on the tripod legs?

No dancing while shooting. It don't mix. I've tried it.

 

[Fox Paw]

It was 30 seconds at f20, ISO 400. Manual focus while the lights were still on, timer in lieu of remote (I don't own one yet), tripod on rubber tips.

I tried it again with the crop and better sharpening (I think). The crop definitely improves it. Sidewinder mentioned artifacts but I think my dubious eyes just can't see them.

 

[abraxas]

It was 30 seconds at f20, ISO 400. Manual focus while the lights were still on, timer in lieu of remote (I don't own one yet), tripod on rubber tips.

I tried it again with the crop and better sharpening (I think). The crop definitely improves it. Sidewinder mentioned artifacts but I think my dubious eyes just can't see them.
...

I was thinking about this the other day: I have dubious eyes also. You wear glasses? Maybe spending some time with your diopter setting may help. I sometimes have trouble with focus even with it set correctly once I get in low light conditions. Just thought I'd say that, now I can let it go