Yellow Rose

Hi, I cloned out the baby's breath in this one.

C&C PLEASE

Wow a beautiful Rose! but is that your finger bottom left ?

I like it much better without the babies breath.....You could crop it a bit to get rid of what Jan is talking about, but I really do like it as it is !!!

Kathy, when taking pics of flowers you need to try and find a tidy specimen.
This one is a little tatty and there are a few damaged petals on it which are spoiling the look of the picture.
The lighting is a little harsh too and the front of the rose is a little blown.

My recommendation to anyone taking flower shots seriously is to purchase a good quality ring flash (no Tracy that is not what you think it is ) which will give a balanced light and cut down on the fall off of light around the flower.

Reflectors all around will help to if you use natural light, a few sheets of white board should do it.

Then the obvious, use a tripod and a remote release to cut down on camera shake.

Another hint that I do, is I pick off all of the sepals from the rose, so there is nothing to distract my flower. Use a tripod, with the remote trigger, and go in close. I shoot in aperture priority, and have some shots as long as 30-45 seconds...so you definately NEED to have a tripod. don't get discouraged...I think I must have taken about 2000 shots before I ever got some consistently where I liked them

Another bit of advice , which I got from Brad Towery. Start at the lowest f stop, and continue shooting the subject at every f stop your lens has. It won't take long for you to see where you like most of your shots. (I used to start at f 2.8 and go all the way to the end.....now I start at about f 8, and go to about f 11. give or take.... this way I have several different exposures of the same shot.

One other thing when I first started, I would set up a shot, and then take every photo...upload them to the computer first, before moving it.

Over yonder, there is a photo in my gallery about set up....so you may want to have a look.

My advice is they are improving with each shot, but keep practicing. I am still far from the expert, but atleast I feel confident enough now to tell someone how to go about it

Thanks All for your comments & suggestions.....

Jan, I see what you are talking about, it's not my finger...it's another rose..LOL !!!

Stewart...I took this picture outside in the later afternoon. I was having some issues with the sun and clouds.. they kept moving and so did my light meter. What is a "ring flash"? Right now, I think it's easier for me to "set" the shot rather than grab a shot since I'm still trying to find my way around manual. So flowers will be my subject of choice, they're pretty and they turned out better than my pineapple and corn. I don't have a tripod yet, but hopefully I will soon.

Tracy, What are sepals? I have been doing the same thing...set up the shot, take the pics and then run to my computer to look at them and then go take some more. That sounds interesting about trying the different apertures, I will do that. I will check out your pic over yonder

The sepals are the green leaves on the bottom of the flowers. I always pick mine off...something Brad Towery recommended.....same with the leaves of the flowers.... I will go and look for the picture of what I am talking about...