Little Miss Sunshine

[Kristin Brown]

Hello All,
I thought I would try and photograph this sunflower in my backyard. Do you all think I needed fill flash? What about the petals on the lower part of the flower? ANY comments/critiques are more than welcome. Thanks for looking.By the way, I am having a great time on this forum!
Kristin


Canon 30D
70-200 f2.8 @ 165mm
f7.1@1/2000, ISO 400
no flash
handheld

[Harold Davis]

hi kristin. the blue you have in the bg is fantastic!!! i would have loved to have seen a flower singled out with this bg all around!! would be awesome. in this one, there is a lot of noise in the rear flower. a little guassian blur might work there. and since the top and bottom of the fore flower's petals have been cut, i'd crop off the left to clip the petals there too.

not sure fill flash would have helped here. might would have evened out the shadow on the right of the flower, but not sure. i wonder if a polarizer filter would have helped here. maybe would have knocked some glare of the flowers and gotten a little more detail...............i'm just thinking out loud....we need an expert opinion here!!

[Bruce Murden]

Kristin, I don't think fill flash would be good here. It may bring up some of the BG flower, an may have opened up the upper petals on the main flower, but I think it would have overwhelmed the lower, sunlit petals. I like the comp, but would have liked to have seen the entire main flower, without cutting off the tips of the petals. It's so teasingly close to the full flower, that I'd like a chance at seeing the petals tips with a little blue sky around them.

Do you usually get good results with acceptable or low noise with your 30D at ISO400? As Harold pointed out, there's a lot of noise in the BG flower, empahasized by it not being in or out of focus enough for me (but you were at 2.8!), and in the sky as well. If your 30D noise is usually okay at 400, then we may just have JPG artifacts (problem with some photos sized down to the limits and less than 200kb). If you have a polarizer and weren't using it here, you may have been able to get a different tone of blue sky to really bring out the yellows (but from the angle of the sunlight, you may not have gotten much effect on the sky).

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Kristin,
A big welcome to the BPN family... I like your composition. I must agree with the techs. that have been addressed. When composing on more than one flower, especially your main one, all of the tips have to show unless you are doing a deliberate crop. Once again a big welcome and looking foward to your next creation...:cool:

[Kristin Brown]

Thank you all for your comments. I was wondering if the crop was a bit tight on top and bottom. Actually Bruce, I was shocked, to say the least, at the noise when the reduced image was posted! It did not look that way while I was working on it in Elements. Also, I usually shoot with a 40D and not the 30D but that camera is on loan. The f stop was at 7.1 not 2.8 though. I do have a polarizer and will try again soon. Again, thank you ALL!!
Kristin

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Kristin !!!!! Big Welcome !!!

Your camera should perform very well noise wise but not if there is any underexposure. If you open the shadow at all will produce instant noise. As presented is easy to remove.

Flash wise I agree with Bruce in that fill would not help much but using from the side might. Will increase the local contrast. Crop wise I would like seeing the entire flower or going a little tighter. Not sure what options you had for the bg oof flower but not crazy about it as presented. I like it a lot and hoping to see lots more !!