Common Snowdrop

[Jonathan Ashton]

Camera Model Canon EOS 50D
Firmware Firmware Version 1.0.7
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 0.4
Av( Aperture Value ) 16.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1 2/3 (1 2/3 would have been better)
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF180mm f/3.5L Macro USM
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Picture Style User Defined 1(Standard)
After previous suggestions I have bought a circular polariser for digital cameras made by Hoya, it probably didn't make much difference in this image but it was on the lens I thought I would give it a try.

Thank goodness for right angle view finders - I struggled a bit to get the elevation on this one, as usual Barney my puppy helped a little - he thought the tripod leg needed holding still!!
Hope you like it, all comments welcome.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Johnathan...I like this alot esp the white background....Was it snow or what?
Would like to have seen the petal on the left more

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Johnathan...I like this alot esp the white background....Was it snow or what?
Would like to have seen the petal on the left more

The background was two sheets of white A4 paper taped to the porch window.

[Nick Palmieri]

I think it's time for me to get one of those RAV...

I like the way it comes diagonally into the image and I am liking the white BG. I also wish we could see the left petal a little better as it gets lost in the white was thinking it was my monitor though... I think cropping a bit off the top wouldn't hurt. Nice image.

[Julie Kenward]

Jonathon, you really have to be careful with white BG's when the flower is white as well - as you can see, you almost lost that petal on the left side. If that was your intention - to blend the flower into the BG - then you did a very nice job. If not, then there are a couple of ways you can keep this from happening.

First, you could make sure that all the petals are a different shade of white than the BG while creating the image or, you could arrange the flower so that the petals were more in the shade or the sun to create a tonal difference with the BG. In pp, you could select the petals and raise or lower their midtone range so they stand out more from the BG. Here, they were so close to the BG I couldn't get any of the tools to select that one petal so I added just a touch of the green from the stem to the BG on a separate layer and then erased it (using the brush tool set to black) off of the petals so the original white showed through.

Once I did this, I could see how strong the original composition was because that other petal really started to come out. This version is offered for comparison so we can all get a good glimpse of that other petal.

[Randy Stout]

Jules:

Nice critique and repost. There is a little hallowing of the white background showing through on some of the leaves, but the change in background color works wonders for me, makes the flower stand out nicely.

Jonathan: I like the basic composition very much. Might consider a tiny crop down from the top, but very nice as is.

Cheers

Randy

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you everyone for the comments, I am happy to take on board your suggestions. Julie thanks for taking the time to do a re-post, I like what you have done, though my original intention was to put white on white. The reason the flower was oriented this way was because one of the sepals had been damaged, presumably by a slug or snail.

[Anita Bower]

i like this image--both the original and repost. i love that you got down so low. what kind of right angle viewfinder do you use?

i hope you keep working on white on white. see here for some examples http://www.ronvandongen.com/thumbs_wow.php

[Jonathan Ashton]

i like this image--both the original and repost. i love that you got down so low. what kind of right angle viewfinder do you use?

i hope you keep working on white on white. see here for some examples http://www.ronvandongen.com/thumbs_wow.php

Hi Anita the angle finder was off ebay I think it came from Hong Kong - only about £20, the Canon version is better made but not worth the money for the amount of use I give it. I found the cheapo version entirely satisfactory - had it for about 2 years now.