Princess Lily - Lilium rubellum.

[Dave Johnson]

Hello everyone! This one was taken last year and is somewhat of a rarity. I happened upon them purely by chance whilst walking in the mountains with my (then) new macro lens. Because it's a rare species I'm quite fond of this shot, but can't help seeing it as a 'record shot' rather than an artistic one. Would love to hear your views and whether it works for you.

Shooting info:
Hand held
Camera Model Canon EOS 60D Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/320
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
White Balance Mode Cloudy

Taken approximately 3 metres away from the flower. Leaning against a pine tree on the left for support.
Self crit - I wish the rear flower wasn't touching the right one. Also the background.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Dave. I love the pastels of the flowers and the soft light. Nice sharpness and the DOF seems about right for these flowers. Your self critique is right on the money - though the overlap of the two flowers is a minor point for me. The bigger issue is the distracting background. You might try toning down the brighter areas of the background as I think that will take this nice image up a notch or two. :S3:

[Dave Leroy]

They are a very pretty flower. If the mountains are not too far away you may be able to find them again this year for more fun.
Yes a good self critique. A lower shooting angle may have eliminated the dark area in bg. It is tough trying to include all of the bits and pieces in a plant like this without merges.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Two of the three lilies are beautuifully illustrated, not surprisingly the third is not so obliging and I doubt there is much that could have been done about that. The exposure and detail in the flowers is excellent. The background whilst OOF is patchy and unfortunately draws my eyes. Shooting using a wider aperture would probably not have helped much and would of course probably rendered DOF inadequate. You could perhaps take a green brush and brush over some of the brightest/palest areas to render the colour range more uniform.

[Dave Johnson]

Thanks Steve, Dave and Jon for commenting. I guess The 'bokeh ball' bkg is somewhat off putting... Nothing I could've done to get around it though as the area the flowers were was roped off and although no one was around I wouldn't want to go trampling any down just to get a better shot! Steve, a short drive and hike will put me on these again, so I'll definitely have another crack at them this year :w3 Thanks again for looking and critiquing.

Dave J.