PDA

View Full Version : The Star



Kaushik Balakumar
04-15-2009, 02:45 PM
Made this image while waiting for a bus. These beautiful flowers on the road side drew my attention.

The star pattern formed by the inner parts of the flower interested me while I was looking for compositions through the view finder. I first wanted the stigma to be in focus & the rest totally OOF. However, while experimenting I also realized that giving some sort of shape to the BG star enhanced the comp (to my tastes). With couple of tries (varying the aperture), I came up with this image which I found to be interesting DOF - as in - showing the star form but not too much detail so as to distract from the main stigma.
Does this work for you...?

http://www.pbase.com/bkaushik/image/111357888/original.jpg

And any thoughts, opinion about the tiny petals edges towards the left of the frame...
Does it distract? I opted not to clone it thinking that it provides some kind of balance to the comp.

Techs:
Nikon D300, Nikkor 105mm VR micro, hand-held
f/6.3, 1/640, ISO200

Critiques/views welcome...

Gus Cobos
04-15-2009, 03:12 PM
Hi Kaushik,
I like the composition and the selective focus with the very narrow depth of field...this has a good soft delicate feel to it...for my personal taste, I would eliminate the two petal on the left side of the frame because it throws the compositional balance off, and it takes away from the main subject...:cool:

denise ippolito
04-15-2009, 09:20 PM
Kaushik, I like the petals on the edge to me it balances the composition. Your colors are beautiful and I love the soft focus of the star with the main stigma being sharp.

Julie Kenward
04-15-2009, 09:38 PM
I'm going with Gus on this one...I love the soft focus but the petals on just one side don't tell a story or add anything major to the image. If they showed up all the way around I'd say definitely leave them in...but as is I think it would be stronger without them.

In case you don't know those are daffodils you're looking at. :)

Mike Moats
04-16-2009, 04:44 AM
Hey Kaushik, cool looking abstract, great vibrant color, I can go either way on the petals.

Kaushik Balakumar
04-16-2009, 05:05 AM
Thank you all for the feedback.


I'm going with Gus on this one...I love the soft focus but the petals on just one side don't tell a story or add anything major to the image. If they showed up all the way around I'd say definitely leave them in...but as is I think it would be stronger without them.

In case you don't know those are daffodils you're looking at. :)

Gus and Jules, I shall try out a version without the petals on the left and post it once am back home from work. Also thanks Jules, I indeed did'nt know that I was photographing daffodils.