First Flower Photo

I was outside taking some pictures of the house today when I decided to try and get a close up of one of our Azeala's. I was using the 35mm Prime lens @ f/40 1.8 100. The picture is focused nicely in the center but blurry around the edges, I would have like to have had all of the flowers in the picture in focus. The background is pretty noisy too. Any suggestions?

Try:
f8 f1.8 is way too open. This should bring the flower in focus and fix the background.
Set the auto ISO to 100-800
Set exposure comp to 0
Picture Control to Standard.
Back up a little. You can crop it in if needed.
These are very broad settings. Play with them a bit.

Are you shooting in RAW or jpeg?
If you're shooting in jpeg the cool kids will be along to politely suggest you edit in RAW.
I suggest Nikon's NX-D software. It's free. You can get it on Nikon's website.

Thanks for all the info, yes I have been shooting in jpeg. primariy because, as I understand it, RAW takes up so much space and is really needed only when doing post editing which I have not begun to do. I will check
out the Nikon software, Thanks!

Zeke_M said:

Try:
f8 f1.8 is way too open. This should bring the flower in focus and fix the background.
Set the auto ISO to 100-800
Set exposure comp to 0
Picture Control to Standard.
Back up a little. You can crop it in if needed.
These are very broad settings. Play with them a bit.

Are you shooting in RAW or jpeg?
If you're shooting in jpeg the cool kids will be along to politely suggest you edit in RAW.
I suggest Nikon's NX-D software. It's free. You can get it on Nikon's website.

Click to expand...

I agree with your first part about stopping down the aperture.
Why would you use auto ISO on a static subject?
How do you know to set the exposure compensation at zero when you don't know the lighting conditions and what metering mode the op is using?

Also agree on backing up some and maybe doing a bit of cropping if the op wants his whole flower to be in focus.

The little backdoor jab about the cool kids and Raw and all, I'm just going to leave that alone.

Capri142 said:

I was outside taking some pictures of the house today when I decided to try and get a close up of one of our Azeala's. I was using the 35mm Prime lens @ f/40 1.8 100. The picture is focused nicely in the center but blurry around the edges, I would have like to have had all of the flowers in the picture in focus. The background is pretty noisy too. Any suggestions?


View attachment 249050

Click to expand...

First things first. F/1.8 will not give you very much in focus , especially if you're shooting close up like this. Stop down your aperture and this will get more of your subject in focus .( play with it and experiment)

Pay attention to the light. Where is the light coming from. Is your subject backlit? . If it is ,move around to the other side of the subject so that light shines behind you and you're not shooting into the light.

You said that the background is pretty noisy. This shot was at ISO 100 so you shouldn't have any noise. I don't see it.

Is this a handheld shot? Try using a tripod for static subjects. This way you can keep your ISO low, use a smaller aperture and don't have to worry about slow shutter speed causing camera shake.

I would also highly recommend using some sort of editing program. Even if it's just simple edits like exposure, highlights/shadows, contrast and the ability to crop/straighten your shots. This will go a long way.

Capri142 said:

I was outside taking some pictures of the house today when I decided to try and get a close up of one of our Azeala's. I was using the 35mm Prime lens @ f/40 1.8 100. The picture is focused nicely in the center but blurry around the edges, I would have like to have had all of the flowers in the picture in focus. The background is pretty noisy too. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

To be honest, I think the only thing that may have gone wrong here is (and I'm guessing here), is that you snuggled up too close to the subject. 35mm F1.8 is a beautiful lens and might be the best choice here, but get back a little more, have the camera focus farther. Maybe rattle off 2 or 4 shots, each spaced with an additional foot of distance and go with the best. Then crop to fill the frame the way you want in post.

Just my $0.02

I agree with everything already said, better luck next time...........

Other than your settings being off, I think the composition needs help. You're shooting the flowers from the rear, which is like taking a portrait of the back of someone's head. And, the background is busy, or noisy, as you say, which distracts from the subject. Some say the background is as important as the subject to a good photograph. Good luck.

guess this answer isnt needed