R Dubs Loc: Linloln,Ne.

Taken in a hurry, hand held and hoping it turned out.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

You were "almost" there. There are no areas of clear and sharp delineating focus. I didn't really notice it at smaller sizes, but when I went into 100% magnification and scanned across the photo trying to find the focus point, I couldn't discern one. You had a good subject, and some subtle coloration that could have made an interesting photo, but for me, it just didn't gel as nicely as I could have hoped.

I say all this in earnest because this Sunday, I will be attending a Poinsettia exhibition at the NC State Arboretum, and I'm going to find myself exactly in the situation that you were. However, I'm going to insist on using my monopod. If they quibble at that, both of my lens choices have Image Stablization, so I will tell myself to slow down, take a deep breath, and roll my finger over the shutter slowly, rather than mashing it down.

R Dubs Loc: Linloln,Ne.

Thanks Bob your insight is helpfull. I was on a running tour of the Longwood Gardens in Philli.with,wife,son,dauterinlaw and grandchildren. With my home in Lincoln Ne. I couldn't pack all the photo equipment I wanted. I felt it was close for the situation. It works well as a wallpaper for the computer and I don't plan on trying to sell it at the art fair :). Again thanks for your input.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

If you have the means to adjust brightness and contrast, I think this would look better with a little work done on that, It's a pleasant photo and could easily be more so, but the white looks a bit dark.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Critiqued in a hurry, on the fly, hope it makes sense.

No, it's not any good. Its a nothing shot.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Contrast, Brightness and Sharpness added.

Variant on White Poinsettia

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I cropped Bobs picture since the ruq bothered me and I added some Topaz clarity

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Hi Dubs. I looked at your metadata. 1/250, f/4.5, ISO 1600. Does not specify lens, focal length and distance. Not a lot of ambient light here. The shutter is faster than what you need. If hand-held, I would have gone to 1/100. If your lens has image stabilization, 1/50. (I am not a big fan of IS. Never seems to work noticeably for me.) Better yet, use a tripod (may be hard considering where you were) or monopod. Even better, a flash with a diffuser and in bounce mode. I set mine to manual, 1/200, f/8 or smaller, ISO 100. The flash will supply all the light you need. You can stop down to get the depth of field you really need. Whether you shoot in an automatic mode or with the flash method here, adjust your exposure with the histogram. Extremely important here.

I like shooting flowers with a telephoto. Fewer problems with depth of field and a nice balance between subject and background.

The metadata do not specify if this was shot in raw or jpg. I would shoot in raw so you get a nice tonal range and wider latitude in adjusting exposure.

Those are the technical issues. Now for the artistic. I would crop this freely. Tighter on the sides, especially on the right. Would be nice to find a flower without the competing dark detail on the left. Not enough beneath the main flower. You have a lot above without a balancing amount below. Finally, I would add a little negative vignetting to make the main flower pop more. Just a subtle amount that no one will notice. In Adobe products, this would be about -10, -20 at the most.

Good luck and show us more pictures.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

Lens data: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Shot at 18 mm

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Hey Bob. Where did you find that information? Very helpful. Shot at 18 mm and just about wide open. The opposite of what I suggest. Thanks for posting it.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

There is a link, http://regex.info/exif.cgi for an app entitled Jeffrey's Exif Viewer. To use it, you have to open a photo in Download mode, copy the URL of the enlarged photo, paste it into a block called Image URL:, then click on the button that says "View Image at URL". It gives camera data, lens data, and more exif data than you can shake a stick at. I use it all the time, especially if I see a photo I like and want to know how it was made.

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

This morning I realized I could do something to (possibly) improve your hasty poinsettia shot. I cropped to remove the rug and some of the blown-out white petals at the top. Then I applied an effect, mainly to bring out more color and texture. Then I tidied up some of the artifacts left by the effect with the healing brush, and applied a -14 negative vignette. My goal was to reveal more of the flowers' character and make the image less flat.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Great tool. All they need now is the focusing mode.

Nightski

abc1234, if you took a shot like this, where would you point your focus? How much of the photo would you want to get in sharp focus? How much would be okay in soft focus?

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

abc1234, I, too, want to know the answer to this because it just so happens I will be attending a Poinsettia showing at NC State Arboretum tomorrow (150 cultivars of Award-Winning growers). I plan to shoot with a Canon 5D MK III, and the following lens will be in my camera bag: Canon 16-35mm f/4L; Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro, and Canon 24-105mm. Which one should I mount first?