Canada golden-rod

[Markus Jais]

EOS 7D, EF 4/300L IS, tripod.
1/250, f5, ISO 400.
LR2 work: just increased clarity a bit
PS CS 4 work: Reduced file size and a little USM.

I came across a group of those flowers during a grey and overcast day. I was playing with my new EOS 7D (fantastic camera!) and searching for something to photograph.
I wanted to use one flower in the middle of others (the out of focus plants on the left and right are closer to the camera than the sharp one) and use selective focus to isolate them against the others.

What do you think? Does it work?

Markus

P.S. This is a much hated plant here in Germany as it is not a native species (comes from North America) and is a threat to native plants. Still a beautiful subject to photograph, though.

[Aidan Briggs]

It works for me, I like the other plants in the BG. The image does seem a bit plain to me. I wonder if you had tried focusing on this plant partially through another plant. That might help give the impression of a patch of these flowers a little better.

I also like the soft light, and the nice use of DOF.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Markus, very nice image! I like the wintery colors and the OOF repetition of the subject. I would sharpen the image a bit more. I also would have placed the subject a little bit more to the left in the frame.

[Vida van der Walt]

Great image and I love the soft light and colours. Ditto repetition of subject in bg and dof.:)

[Julie Kenward]

Markus, I like the main subject in this image - it has nice detail and really sets a mood. As for the BG, for my taste I'd prefer to see it more even throughout the entire BG or more OOF. I also think if you had move it more to the left as Jerry suggested, you could have tilted your camera a bit and gotten more of a curve to the plant. That said, you did a really nice job on exposing for the whites - this plant is prone to overexposure in sunlight. You caught it on a good day!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Markus, for me I don't mind the BG as is, I call these somewhere in between DOF shots. Where just enough DOF is there to show the subject in the BG, but not enough details to overpower and clutter to much.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Nice soft lighting that helped the exposure for sure. Like it lots. Since it's leaning to the right, I'd still take some more canvas away from the left and a little from top. If it were mine that is. Well done mate. :)