I think the shot is very pretty but concur about the rose in front. I think the white balance could be a bit cooler. I feel its a bit warm casting an orange hue and the orange frame kinda adds over the top warmth. Unless very warm is what you were going for.
Seems we are attracted to flowers because of their colors and complexity when we view them. However it seems that they 'photograph' best in a more simple composition. Rule of thumb is Out Of Focus (OOF) items in the foreground tend to dominate and draw attention from the focused subject. It is more pleasing to the eye and the subject to have the Back Ground (BG) go soft which nicely sets off your area of focus. Too many flowers make it difficult to to have a stand out subject unless you are using multiples of the same flower and picking points of focus. I also think you will find that too much frame will take away from the simplicity of good flower shot too, so be minimal on framing and careful on color choice if you choose a colored frame.
Take multiple pictures of that hibiscus and try to find a lone flower with nothing in front of it but perhaps green behind it and find a way to make it stand out, try different f/stops and selectively focus on few different spots to see the changes. The more you vary the better the chance of finding one that will impress you too.
I hope you find this all helpful and only as requested for C&C, we all have different opinions, these are offered for you to try. Keep shooting and posting, I am sure you will be pleased with the help and your progress too
Karl
May 19, 2008 at 09:53 PM
anthony whitmo Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Another thought would be to increase your Aperture to ad more DOF and keep more of the photos in Focus. How much In focus would be Your choise. YOu could always try multiple apertures to see how much DOF you like.
You were at f/3.8 I think and that's pretty narrow DOF. Not that that's bad > It just gave you a narrow DOF and you added an odd focal point in the arrangement.
Colourful shot, but I have to agree that the depth of field is far too shallow. As other's have pointed out, that really only works well if the object in focus is in the foreground, or if the in-focus object in the middle is something really special. Keep plugging away at it, though!
Btw, I can't help but be gentile. I was raised a Methodist!! Sorry! Couldn't resist!!
