Rose

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS @ 105mm
Av mode
.5"
F22
ISO: 100
Canon 430EX: On, Fired (comp -3 w/wide panel)
LR & CS3

BG is black foam core. Shot indoors with mostly natural window light and a minor amount of fill flash.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Ken,

Beautiful rose, nice details and good flash control. I am a bit distracted by the leaf that seems quite big compared to the flower. That said, I like how you composed this very much using the ROT. I might opt for a little less contrast.

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful lighting Ken! At first I liked the larger leaf - it kind of balanced the size of the rose to me. Now that I read Jerry's critique I'm wondering if the answer is to keep the large sized leaf but have it move back in the frame instead of forward. ??? I'd also take a slice off the right side - the left side is very close to the edge so I think it would feel more balanced if both sides had the same amount of negative space going down the sides.

All that said, I'd be really happy with this. It's gorgeous and you really brought out the beauty of the flower!

[Ken Childs]

Thanks, Jerry and Jules.
Jules, I originally went with less negative space on the right but then thought of past comments about giving the flower some space to "look" into so I went back a step and did a different crop. I guess sometimes I think too much. :)

[Desmond Chan]

For some reason, the rose looks kind of strange to me...it looks 3D but doesn't really give me that feel...if that makes any sense :) I guess it has to do with the perspective the pic was taken. Anyway, exposure and colors look really good !

[Anita Bower]

The light on this flower is just gorgeous! Again--fantastic use of black bg. I like the angle of the flower coming into the frame. Taking a bit off the right would be OK. What did you use for fill frash? An off camera flash? Where was it positioned? Thanks!! (Who is the gardener in your family? Wonderful flowers.)

[Ken Childs]

Thanks, Anita!
It's the same setup I've been using. The flash is attached to the camera with the wide panel down so it get spread out. The foam core setup is the same as what you were using in your video interview so a small amount of the flash bounces in from the left. I have a piece of black board that I insert in when needed. The next time I'm doing this I'll take a shot of the setup so you can see what it looks like.

I'm the gardener and brought these roses with me when I move from California 5 years ago. What sucks is that they'll fall apart shortly when the heat and humidity of summer arrives. Most roses don't do well here but at least I get a couple of weeks in spring and a couple more in fall when conditions are good and the blooms survive long enough to get photographed. :)