Arty-Clarty stuff

[Pol]

A cluster of orange flowers, like poppies, sprung up in the garden. I love the colour and wanted an 'arty-clarty' style shot before they snuffed it as they're already dropping their petals rapidly. I wanted something slightly WA and shallow but not macro.

I showed it to David and he was polite but struggling to be so. His exact words were "pleasant enough but nothing special"

Is it really that boring and nondescript? Comments would be very welcome.



Pol

[Julia]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

I know I am not much of an expect but I like it

[Pol]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

I know I am not much of an expect but I like it

Thanks Julia. You don't need to be an 'expert' (I'm not either) but your opinion is as good, as valid and as valued as the next person's.

What I was aiming for was something along the same lines as my gallery picci of the falling leaf - a very shallow dof but with one small area in focus within a suitable blend of background. So I used the same technique and the same lens as I'd used for the falling leaf (wide but close, large aperture + fast shutter speed as the flowers were blowing about quite a lot).

The problem with that particular flower is that the centre and stamens aren't very prominent anyway and they're also a similar colour to the petals.

D'ya reckon the in-focus flower is prominent enough? Is it noticeably in focus compared to the other flowers? That's one of the things I've been wondering and asking David but he's a tad non-commital about it and I suspect he's just saying what he thinks I might want to hear.

Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

I love the colour of the flowers, they look a little like buttercups! The flower in focus is great but I find the fuzziness of the greenery to the above right in particular, slightly distracting! Perhaps if you had put the 'in focus' flower closer, thus making it larger than others would have given the illusion of more depth...ie making it more prominent!

[jojo]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Hmm, not really doing it for me Pol. I find the sharpest flower too small and insignificant and therefore lost within the rest of the scene. Good colour combo though. Are they welsh poppies? If they are they are quite delicate and don't last much longer than a day or two.

jo

[Pol]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated. I think maybe this one's gonna be one of those "better luck next year" floral shots. I also think it probably would've been a lot better if the 'leading flower' had been more separated from the others and I reckon the focus is probably more on the stem than the flower too.

Oh well.

I think maybe you're right about them being Welsh Poppies, Jojo. These ones do indeed drop after about one day so there aren't really any second chances. There are fallen petals and straggling stems all over the place today. I'm letting them go to seed in the hopes we'll get a lot more next year because I love the colour so much. Dunno where they came from - must have been some stray seed blown in from somewhere I suppose.

I'm attaching a crop from an earlier 70mm shot so you can see one of the flower and some of the leaves in more detail.

Pol

[StuartR]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Just so you know you're not alone in taking this type of picture Pol..

What matters is whether YOU like 'em!



(This one was actually taken to check the eyepiece on my camera was set correctly for manual focusing - my 100-400mm didn't want to AF when attached to my extension tube).

Just after I'd taken the shot I noticed this chap lurking on the stone beneath the plant (which was on the side of our pond)

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Pol, this is a very quick example of how recomposing your elements in a photo & combining 2 shots can actually work! This is a VERY quick example, hence you can still see outlines of some of the overlaid shot, as I did not go around the whole lot with the eraser!

[Pol]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Pol, this is a very quick example of how recomposing your elements in a photo & combining 2 shots can actually work! This is a VERY quick example, hence you can still see outlines of some of the overlaid shot, as I did not go around the whole lot with the eraser!

Thanks Jocelyn, I'd already thought of that. However - I would regard that as 'Photoshoppery button pushing' rather than photography and I gave up doing that sort of thing a long time ago.

I'm all for using photoshop as a digital darkroom to enhance a Photograph as far as possible - but I'm not 'into' graphic design or creating an pseudo photograph that doesn't really reflect what was actually there and or what I actually saw.

Sorry if that offends anyone or has opened a can of worms.

Pol

[Blithe]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Pol, I really like your falling leaf photograph, but have to agree with others that in this photograph the main subject is not big enough nor isolated enough to have the same effect. However, the colours are wonderful together (nature knows her stuff) and I like the light you have captured. What I always keep telling myself, 'take lots' might be a case in point here perhaps.

I have yellow poppies in the garden, but they're a paler greeny yellow without any orange which yours have. Yours should be an Irish poppy rather than a Welsh poppy with those colours. I like the single poppy shot with the shadows on the petals.

[Blithe]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Oops, forgot to say - love the pic of Mr Frog Stuart.

[Pol]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

I have yellow poppies in the garden, but they're a paler greeny yellow without any orange which yours have. Yours should be an Irish poppy rather than a Welsh poppy with those colours. I like the single poppy shot with the shadows on the petals.

One of my near neighbours informs me it's a Califonia Poppy and it's almost certainly sprung up from seeds off her own. She has a large cluster in her own garden which she grew from seeds and own her cluster is superb so hopefully ours should spread and grow like hers spread from now on.

Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Everyone to their own I say! Combining elements from your own photography or 'Photoshopping' in this day & age is open to personal taste! To me its all part of creativity! I've only just learnt how to work with layers etc quite recently....part of a continuous learning curve with photoshop etc. But then again, the design & graphics side does interest me personally & not everyone's cup o chai!

[Pol]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

Everyone to their own I say! Combining elements from your own photography or 'Photoshopping' in this day & age is open to personal taste! To me its all part of creativity! I've only just learnt how to work with layers etc quite recently....part of a continuous learning curve with photoshop etc. But then again, the design & graphics side does interest me personally & not everyone's cup o chai!

Perhaps so but I feel there's a time and a place for that sort of thing and an arts and graphics forum would be a more appropriate place than a photography critique forum

I was asking for critique on a photograph, having described my objectives and camera technique. I'd also added the attachment simply as a way of identifying the species.

I'm here to discuss camera and photograpy technique and I thought I'd made that clear at the beginning of the thread.

For future reference - please do NOT download alter then repost any of my images without my permission.

Pol

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Arty-Clarty stuff

I sincerely apologize for offending you Pol or anyone else for that matter! I've taken on board your comments! Thank you! Perhaps my looking to include being involved in another website & forum might not be such a bad idea actually!