Ibiscus

[Harry Haller]

it's always a challenge to photograph a flower ... and a flower is a lovesome thing.

color aware browser, please; the .jpg has aRGB1998 embedded.
focus plane is on the taller flower.



Tripod mounted Olympus OM 4, Zuiko 200mm ƒ/4 @ ƒ/5,6, Provia 100F

[Lauren,M.]

To my eyes your foto at present presentation the back ground is take-ing up the focus of the foto, my thought would be to make this foto long and slender , not so wide and large, this reason I say the background is distracting to me , I love to shot flowers their cheap Model's require only water and sun ! On my 24 inch monitor the total foto seem's dark , if the flower were a little lighther [foreground] , maybe it would work, I am an amature myself, hope this help's

[Harry Haller]

thanks for commenting, Lauren. it's true, the flowers were in the shade and the backgound heavily lit by noon sunlight.
spot metered the flowers at least four times, and they still look dark in the Provia - that's because (I think ... ) when you're viewing it, the viewer's eyes themselves 'stop-down' the iris for an average brighter scene. I was partially aware of the challenge when doing this image, and metered carefully. simply put: it's reversed, main subject is properly focused and exposed while background is way brighter, and I'm happy that the Provia was able to compress the highlights quite nicely.

anyway, I agree I could have adjusted curves better when scanning, since the Provia shows less yellow and more red in the green background. I'm just about to start all over again  :rolleyes:

[jake]

I think the lighting on the flowers, though subtle, is terrific. That subtlety could be brought out by compressing the value of the background - perhaps simply by lopping off the highlights at the top so there aren't so many white-hot areas. As you say, those could cause the eye to stop-down and thus effectively darken the flower perceptually. You might be able to use Photoshop's "magic wand" tool to select the flower, then inverse the selection, and adjust the background independently of the flower. Then you could drop the value of the background without losing the nice color.

[KirkT]

Yeah, I like this...a lot.  It seems to work as a whole, not just a photo of a flower.  I really love all the yummy grain and I have to ask, is this cross processed?  I can't imagine Provia 100 had such heavy grain....but it really works IMHO.  So, I'd say it's less a photo of a flower than a photo with a flower in it. 

Again, very nice (and I love my OM-4)

[KirkT]

Oh, and was that an intentional reference to Vince Guaraldi?

[shadowfox]

I find the background almost overpowering the subject, that is the flowers.  With some cropping, the tall flower could be brought to the viewers' attention.

Don't get me wrong, I like the background and the round highlights, but I think it's too strong for the given subject.

Thanks for sharing.