In the Beginning.....

This is my first picture for crit in a hobby I decided to pic up properly two weeks ago.



Nikon D3100
55-200 Kit lens on manual Focus
I am not sure how to retrieve EXIF data yet, will update when I can find it.

I initially was taking pictures from above of the tight curl of petals. It then occurred to me a side on shot would be better. I had an image in my head of a valentines rose and tried to recreate it in pink.
The blue, bottom right is the pool and the brown is the paving. I came from different angles until I could
I took this at midday.
get the pool and shape of the rose to my liking.

Mighty fine job there! I might have tried to light it slightly different but I like what I see. The Bokeh is gorgeous.

Whoever said you needed a 1.4 - 2.8 lens for nice creamy bokeh. I'm impressed. 18-55 and the 55-200 are really good lenses for that camera.

I'd be curious as to how much PP you had to do.

Clever idea. Background look great. Colours of the flower and stem look unnatural to my eye however. Was it a real flower?

It is a real flower. I did edit the color curve on Gimp as my weeks project (i set weekly projects for myself to learn quicker)
I would have loved to be able to make the background darker and flower lighter, but I have no idea how to do that.
​The Hardest part is I do not have a tripod and to get this low and hold it steady took some time.

snowbeast said:

It is a real flower. I did edit the color curve on Gimp as my weeks project (i set weekly projects for myself to learn quicker)
I would have loved to be able to make the background darker and flower lighter, but I have no idea how to do that.
​The Hardest part is I do not have a tripod and to get this low and hold it steady took some time.

Click to expand...

Want a darker background? Move the flower even farther from the background or put a darker background behind the flower. Want the flower to have more light? Add more light either from a window, if inside, or use creative fill flash or off camera flash. Or use a white card/board to reflect more sunlight light onto the flower.

Needs cropping. It's too centered for a Two Thirds crop, but a tighter Golden Ratio crop pins it nicely.