In the Garden

Hi,
I went outside to take some snaps of a rose that's just flowered in the garden; not planted by any of my flatmates, just a leftover from when our garden was actually tended to. Anyway, I've gone through the pics and these are the two I like the most. One basically straight off the camera and one I played about with. Any thoughts on either?

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ch...ose-sq0-sm.jpg

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ch...at-rose-sm.jpg

I know they're not great shots, I just wondered what you thought.

Thanks,
Chris

Anyone? :)

What about this one then:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ch...ose-sq1-sm.jpg

Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hindey

Hi,
I went outside to take some snaps of a rose that's just flowered in the garden; not planted by any of my flatmates, just a leftover from when our garden was actually tended to. Anyway, I've gone through the pics and these are the two I like the most. One basically straight off the camera and one I played about with. Any thoughts on either?

I know they're not great shots, I just wondered what you thought.

Thanks,
Chris

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Hello Hindey,

I like your first shot. The sharpness is there, the colours are very vivid, I think that the dof is fine but most importantly, I like your crop.

As for the second picture, I think that it is ok but I must say that I am not a big fan of "selective decolouration" (is this the proper term??). I canno't really comment on your post-processing, I am just not proficient enough in PS at that point in time to dare to do so but you seem to have done well here.

regards

Seb

Later on...

There is one small detail that I have missed at the first place. Regarding your first picture, I would slightly crop at the left and at the bottom in order to get rid of the green spot in the lower left corner of the frame. I think that it distract the viewer from the flower as it is.

Seb

The first two I did not care for. I did not like the desaturation as it looked very digitally edited imo. the composition of the other one was just not working well for me. This last one you just posted I feel is by far the best of the three. Good sharpness and nice colors. It is usually not a good idea to shoot straight on and dead center but in this case it does not look bad and maybe because the lower petal is hanging down bringing the whole subject more to the bottom of the frame rather than dead in the middle.

Seb, I'm not on my home computer at the moment but I'll try what you suggested and post it a bit later. I argree with what you say in principle, and have a feeling it'll look much better.

Gahspidy, I don't really like the desaturated one either, it's not really a "photograph" in my opinion. I just tried it out in PS and was quite impressed with the end result. If that makes sense...

Personally, my favourite is the top one. I like the DOF and the colours.

The third one I'm really not all that keen on to be honest. Some of my friends perfer it, but still...

I like the second one the followed by the third one. The first one doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t like the composition of it all that much and that hot spot bothers me.

On the second one I think the leaves in the background add a lot to the image. I still don’t like the hot spot but the composition is quite appealing to me.

On the last one I think that the color is the best of the three but the composition is a bit too centered for me. Maybe it would be better if you cropped some off the top and left side.

Greg

Personally the middle picture is the best one and the bottom one dosent do anythign for me.

Seb, as requested. I agree it looks better:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ch...q0-crop-sm.jpg

Thoughts?

Chris

dadas115, what's a hotspot? A bright area of colour?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hindey

Seb, as requested. I agree it looks better:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/ch...q0-crop-sm.jpg

Thoughts?

Chris

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Well actually, that specific picture was and remain my favorite one and while I don't want to sound like "I own the thruth" I think that this is a significant improvement.

However, Gary's comment mades me look deeper at your pictures and I think that you have used a feather that was too narrow to isolate the flower in your desaturated (no.2)) picture which make it feels like the flower was pasted on the top of a grey background.

Somehow, your first picture have a similar feeling. Did you performed a selective blur of the background and/or a selective sharpening of the flower?

Either way, the third picture looks more natural than the others although I am not as enthusiastic as Gary about your composition (looking good but too centered for me).

regards

Seb

Nope, not at all. The first picture was levelled slightly, contrast increased a tiny bit and cropped. I think what we're seeing is chromatic abberation; it's clearer on the larger image. Here's a crop taken from the blue channel of the original image. It's from near the top of the flower. I think it's this effect that's giving it a digitally edited feel. Which is kind of annoying, because the first image had very little done to it!

I think I read somewhere the Fuji Finepix S5000s are prone to it.

Chris