Critique please...what direction to go

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

08/12/2005 11:53:16 PM · #1

I was hoping for some serious critique on the following picture. I've had to do a ton of post-processing because I was doing it "on the cheap". My background wasn't large enough to cover the subject and that lead to mucho problems. I also had huge trouble lighting the flower without causing glare. Ultimately I backlit with a reflector on the flower and black reflector shading the glass. (still wasn't perfect)

Let me know what you think here. I have the saturation down because I'm shooting for print and this was about the max allowed before the gamut warning went off too much. (I think we get spoiled looking at pictures via video...)

Larger version here

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

08/13/2005 12:14:20 AM · #2

Looks pretty good to me considering what you had to work with. The background and table is a bit distracting. I would of like to have seen more details in the flower. But I think your on your way to making a great shot. Keep it up.

Did you have to PS the background to make it large enough to cover the subject?

08/13/2005 12:46:35 AM · #3

Here is the original

Larger version

08/13/2005 01:43:50 AM · #4

OK OK, I've redone things and it always stands true that if you start with a good photo you wind up with a good photo. I pushed the vase right against the background which allowed much more to fit in (there was still a bit of the flower out and I wanted the background to go higher). I took the picture in a dark room with only a bounce flash off the ceiling which cut down on the reflection drastically. The exposure was 2 seconds long and I backlight the flower with a penlight during part of that.

Critiques are still wanted, but you can see this is much better than above...

Larger Version

Message edited by author 2005-08-13 14:58:45.