OK, now for all of the bad puns: I'm trying to grow as a photographer, and that means I need to branch out and try new types of photographs. I hope I didn't go out on a limb here. My budding skills need you to give me your C&C so I can flower into .............. ok, ok ok, that's enough nonsense!!
Here is a picture of a bed of amaryllis bulbs that are flowing in my yard. It was a horrible day for photography with clouds, rain, and wind, but I wanted to take photos and I guess you make do with what is around you. What I liked about this picture was the colors of the red and green against the greys of the tree limbs (and the grey background of my house to boot!)
Sony a77, 15-55mm at 55mm, f5.6 at 1/250, ISO 640
in LR slight crop to remove some from lower and right/left sides, work on colors to make them punch a little (not a lot!)
In PS remove a few yellow leaves and a twig or two.
What I don't know is .............. well, there is no real OOF "background". I don't know if there is enough in this photo to interest others, if it would be considered a "good" photo of it's kind. I've seen lots of close-up photos of flowers before, and they are all done like we do bird photography -- focus tight on the flower with a blurred OOF background. This is definitely not one of those photos.
So ... C&C appreciated along with thoughts on how this could have been made better.
That's very funny Andrew! Let see if I can plant a seed...
I love flowers of any description and these are no exception. If this were mine I would go a pano crop and take off a slice from the top and a bigger slice on the bottom, so you basically are left with a row of red flowers. I would try and mask the flowers and darken the BG considerably, maybe even getting rid of the green. As for the white tree, I'm not sure if I would leave them as they are, or try to darken them down. They could look a bit abstracty.
I have been trying to decide what I would try with this image. The only part I'm not keen on is where you can see the gray of the house coming through in the BG. I'd almost think about cutting some flowers and place them behind the other flowers to cover that small area up, or use more greenery to cover that up as well. I love the color in this one.
Interesting take. I'm very impressed with the detail and sharpness in the flowers, and with the well-handled reds -- not always easy to do! And I like the idea of the two trunks framing the flowers. But the problem I have with images like this is that I want to see things come to an end by the edge of the image (such as reflections). Don't know if it was possible here to go wider and have that happen. Otherwise I might have concentrated on the bunch between the trunks, but not sure how I would have handled the edges.
Totally useless comments tonight -- if I can think of anything better I'll get back. If they're still blooming, go play!! They're gorgeous!
Amaryllis
