Dissenting opinion here. I would pitch the b/w one. The majesty of flowers are in their color, patterns and fragrance. (Will someone invent a camera to capture odor!)

As for the remaining two, neither is sharp. I do not know if the cause is movement from holding the camera rather than using a tripod, you were too close, or the focus was off. You do not need and probably should not use a macro lens here. The flowers I shoot are large enough so as not to require a macro. I shoot things like this around 75-150 mm. I step back, put the camera on a tripod, stop down to about f/16, set the camera to manual and adjust the exposure time using the histogram. The light is fairly far from the light box so the light is very soft. Just my taste.

As for the first photo, I do not have a problem with the noisy background but would have toned it down to make the flowers pop more. And I would have brightened and sharpened the flowers for the same reason. Or adjusted the vibrancy or saturation upward a bit.

I enjoy the last one the most. It reminds me of those hand watercolors used as illustrations in old books or as wall art. Looks like you cranked up the saturation. No background so to speak. I would have added a wee bit of vignetting, a subtle way of bringing out the flowers. Not enough to see but enough to pop out the flowers.

Good luck and keep shooting.

I agree with you...If you guys don't mind my two cents here.
Loose the tent! Choose a background that complements the subject at hand and blast away. Try aiming or bouncing light to achieve effects. Make the subject jump out...

Here's a little taste of what I'm talking about just as Lucian Said...

Note: The original file size of this image was 32mg knocked down to 330kb for this forum. Viewing this image cleanly will depend on your display and the color gamut it produces.

Well, they are each appealing in their own way. #1 I do like the color matching between subject and background - very nice in this case - but the shadow to the left draws my attention - so watch that. The composition in this one also works better having the ancillary bloom on top as opposed to thrown off to the side - it helps keep the eye on the subject..

Thank you for that very in-depth analysis, when I started taking these pictures I was really just playing around with different backgrounds to see the effect, ( or is it affect ). The flower itself had broken off the bouquet hence no stem. I like all three for different reasons but I understand what everyone is saying regarding shadows and sharpness, and now that you mentioned it I can see the back flower in # 2 is stealing some of the lime light. I am as green as they get when it comes to photography so all of this feedback is very helpful.
So to that point thank you all for your critiques they have been most helpful.
Ellen

#2 the b&w becomes much like a charcoal or pen drawing. I don't know if that was your intent - if so - good job - if not - back to the drawing board. Also in your composition it starts to appear way to similar to the grouping in #1 (and this becomes more obvious in #3) and to me the lines and shapes in the background quickly become more intriguing than the flower in front - so I don't think in this case having that rear bloom works (for me).

#3 same flower grouping different lighting and same basic composition / camera perspective as #2 - surprize me! The white certainly brings alot of energy and impact - turning into a quite happy little flower. But in my mind the white becomes tiresome quickly, the flower ends up betrayed no longer happy but just sort of glaringly revealed....not so flattering maybe?

BUT all that said - damn good work!!! Keep at it!

I like the pictures especially the first one. You do mention the f-stop in a later answer but not the ISO. I would set at ISO100, and bump the f-stop up to between 11 and 22. Shoot on AV. Try several stops in-between those numbers and see which one works for you. Personally I like the background on the first image--the blushing colors matching the flower point ones eyes right to the flower. IN post processing blow the image up to 100% which will


show any imperfections such as noise or pit pf focus. If there are any blurry
lines around the flower blossoms, then the image is out of focus or has
moved.



Thanks, I used iso 200 I very rarely use anything higher then that, I dislike noise especially if I use tripod.

Swede

Nice flower, thanks for the critique. I think i shot this flower with every color back ground imaginable lol here it is with black background.