gladioli in its own environment

[Valerio Tarone]

Sigma zoom17-35 at29mm spot met. f5,6 1/30 ISO 200 WB:shadow minimal work in PP: levels /curves and sharpening USM50-4-1Comments appreciated. The upper part let intraview a path.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Valerio, I like this a lot - the darkened and diffuse background with the lighter diagonals of light gives it an air of mystery to me and is a nice contrast to the brighter flowers in the foreground. I like the diagonal of the hill also. I think you could crop a little off of the bottom and I would be inclined to clone out the strong vertical grass in the center of the image - it seems to draw your eye to it.:S3:

[Valerio Tarone]

Cheryl,thank you,exactly i thought to play with lights. I appreciate your tips and I'll make them.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Valerio you have a great eye for composition, I really like the idea. A couple of things to consider:
1. Focus critically on the gladioli then lock the focus and recompose.
2. Use a faster shutter speed - nothing is sharp, maybe consider a higher ISO

[Valerio Tarone]

Thank you Jonathan. I suppose my eye is a lot improved after have seen thousands and thousands of photos, also all the the international awrards . To use a faster speed? it means a broader diafragm. Exact? I agree to lock focus.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Valerio
Yes - Faster speed = wider diaphragm ........or higher ISO

[Valerio Tarone]

Thank you Jonathan, increasing iso decreases sharpening. Arthur Morris has shown one his photo at 6400 iso which was selcted as finalist in WPOTY. I think it's a different issue in macro where we need utmost sharpening. Or not?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you Jonathan, increasing iso decreases sharpening. Arthur Morris has shown one his photo at 6400 iso which was selcted as finalist in WPOTY. I think it's a different issue in macro where we need utmost sharpening. Or not?

Valerio, finer detail is more discernable in lower ISO images, the amount of sharpening an image requires will depend in part upon ISO setting, the texture of the subject and the direction of the light. Macro in general tends to be taken to illustrate fine detail in a small world, as a general rule it is good practice to use the lowest practicable ISO but if you look at many recent posts perfectly acceptable results can be obtained at ISO 400 - 800 and even higher. It is important to "expose to the right" i.e. when you take the image check the histogram to ensure there is detail captured in the furthest right part of the histogram. It is also a good idea to turn the"blinkies" i.e. overexposed highlights on so that when you overexpose you get a rough idea of how and where the overexposure occurs. It is also a good idea to slightly overexpose because this can be recovered during raw conversion (the image on the camera back is in fact a jpeg not the raw file) but I would advise not to over expose by much, just have a few blinkies showing this will ensure you have the minimal noise in your images.

[Valerio Tarone]

Yes, Jonathan, thanks. I read the same topic by Salvo Orlando in a specialized magazine but I was a bit uncertain about.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes, Jonathan, thanks. I read the same topic by Salvo Orlando in a specialized magazine but I was a bit uncertain about.

Valerio - any questions - just ask if I don't know the answer I am sure I know someone who does!