Denise and Dave showed me the way here. I have so much admired the cropped inner floral structure photos, being a botanist they just kind of thrill me. Also i borrowed Bruces 7D:D, with my 300. I tried a 5D in vancouver, and um, I need to save my pennies. This was from the first photos taken with this borrowed camera. Shot at iso 400, 300 mm, 4 9 at 1/125, heavily cropped. I dont really like the pollen stains, but I like the framing. Seeing it in preview I think its too noisy and possibly oversharpened. Thanks in advance for any comments.
Last edited by Katherine Enns; 08-02-2010 at 11:10 PM.
Hi Katherine,thanks for the nice words. Your composition is different and is accentuating form and color. The pollen stains can easily be cloned out if desired. The noise could also come from the large crop which often reduces image quality.
I might clone or crop out the stamens since we only see a piece of them and their not adding to the overall.
You being a botanist and love flowers I strongly recommend you buying a macro lense(after saving your pennies) so you can fill a frame with small compositions and not worry about large crops. I would get the largest macro you can afford.
Thanks for your reply, Dave! After posting, (why is this) I noticed how imperfect and rather bad that shot actually IS. I would have stolen it back off the site and slunk off, but there does not appear to be a facility for that. :)
I have a macro, this was an experiment to see how much resolution a 300 on a 7D would have. I guess now that you mention it, I dont use the macro very much for FUN because I am impatient, or in a hurry with plants now after 32 years, and for work, I just need a record not a thing of beauty, but you and the others here with those whorled photos I see on this site are amazing and have changed my mind about things. I will dust it off and figure out my new tripod a bit better as well.
Hi Katherine - Agree with Daves comments - Not with your though!!!! :) This is ETL!!! Never feel bad about posting anything here - its all about learning and you can bet your bottom dollar there are 6 other people that have read this thread that have learned something from your post as well.
As mentioned a large crop is always going to hurt IQ.
Keep em coming :)
Hi Katherine, agree with all the comments. You have a great composition here. IMO, the IQ problems arise solely from not using a macro lens, which forced you to do a heavy crop, but your creativity is excellent.
Thank you all so much for your encouragement. Its very helpful for amateur enthusiasts to have such gentle instruction. BTW, I read here recently, a new poster being very tentative and unsure, even though her photograph had excellent elements in it. Quite a few people helped her, at it was not just positive and heartwarming but also a service to photographic arts. We may perhaps see more of her work because of the comments that were made. I will take all of your combined advice.
floral spiral, inspired by others here
