took a walk through a garden

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
There's something about this shot that I don't like. Did I make it too dark?

DSC_0894.jpg

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/160 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Focal Length: 55mm
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I think it is a little dark. I tried just with the curve adjustment layer to brighten it up and it did help making it more pleasing to MY eyes.
 

Carolina Photo Guy

Senior Member
DSC_0894 - Version 2.jpg

How's this?

It seemed to me that all the stems and bokeh made for a too busy image.
I tried playing with the exposure but it very quickly became "mundane" for lack of a better word.
Squaring the image up seemed to better focus the attention on the blossoms.

Just my humble opinion.

Pete
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
My first thought also was that it was too "busy". Pete's redo is much better. You might try the original shot is BW also if you wanted to keep the long stems.
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
I think it's underexposed by a stop, maybe even a stop and a half. That's easily fixed.

More than that though, I think what you don't like are the colors. Blue, green, and purple are the prominent colors here and they are an analogous color scheme (next to each other on the color wheel). While there is a sense of calm and harmonious feelings with these colors, there is no "wow factor" or "pop" that is often associated with flower photography.
 

bluenoser

Banned
Hi John.

My guess as to what you might not like: Well yes, I think it's too dark and I like Pete's cropping and PP treatment - it is an improvement. However the biggest distraction for me is the less than appealing bokeh. Very rough and busy looking (I'm going to safely assume that you weren't using the "cream machine" 85 1.4! :)) I do like the colours though and the perspective.
 

bluenoser

Banned
Hi Jack.

Yes, certainly a difference with regard to perspective although a bit too centred - I prefer Pete's composition. With regard to bokeh - well it's only better as there's less of it due to the close crop. Still - IMHO - rough looking. Nice flowers though! What kind are they I wonder? (beyond roses and tulips I don't know very much about them!)
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
Thanks for the comments everyone - When I framed the shot I was thinking that it should be vertical to show the long stems, but I guess that was the wrong approach. It was taken with the 18-55 kit lens, and I honestly didn't notice how distracting the bokeh was until now. This makes me want to get a 50mm!

Jen pointed out that they are Allium
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Jedeg, I'm with you on the long stems, they just beg for a long vertical format, makes a much better shot than cutting the stems off. I would have also included just a little of the ground at the bottom of the stems. The problem with the bokeh is there is not enough of it. It's just a little too close to focus. You should have opened up the f/stop even more to completely blur out the back ground, f/2.8 or f/1.8 probably would have done it. You can lighten up the exposure, add some color intensity, definition and sharpening in post processing. Just my thoughts.

PS: I just saw you were using the 18-55mm. To get the best bokeh with that lens I would have opened it up to the f/4 setting and set the focal length to 35mm or even 18mm and moved in closer. The change in f/stop and the shorter focusing distance would have given you a much shallower depth of field and much improved bokeh.
 
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