Looking for critique: Flower/Bee

timparker_NikonD60

I am new to the Photography game. I have owned digitals and taken pictures, but am now wanting to learn more and have started on the path with the purchase of my first DSLR. I just bought a Nikon D60.

I am taking pictures of anything that I can and reading the site to learn and see what can be done.

This is a photo I snapped tonight. I showed it to my boss, a photo enthusist and am interested in some other thoughts from strangers to see how I am doing so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40083262@N08/3679205245/
(I tried to insert the image here and it didn't seem to like it. Sorry.)

Thanks in advance.

Tim

John at the Beach

Bzzzzzzz
Tim....
I like the shot...It's simple, focus is really good and the DOF makes the flower and the bee the center of the shot...The bee really doesn't do anything for the shot, my opinion of course, because he is so small...Your colors are good as well...Here at the beach we call it a beach daisy or black eyed susan...
I think it would have been a good photo with out the bee, but you get what you get...
As far as linking to flickr, make sure you have the full url...That includes the .jpg on the end of the photo link...Right click the picture, proporties, etc....Good picture...:D

Here is the link you should have used....
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3663/3679205245_aebdcb552c_b.jpg





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timparker_NikonD60

That's the problem, when I copied it, I didn't have the file name! Silly me.

Thank you for the comments. The bee was actually a last minute guest, I almost didn't snap it when I saw him drop in. The neighbor has a bunch of these in front of his house. There were lots of bees to choose from.

John at the Beach wrote:

Tim....

Here is the link you should have used....
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3663/3679205245_aebdcb552c_b.jpg

jeffmeyers

Nice shot, and welcome to Dgrin. The only thing that bothers me about your image is the busy bokeh. Is that the result of post processing? Or is that the lens? My eye keeps getting distracted by the contrasty bokeh. Maybe you could mask the flower and adjust the contrast and blur the background a bit. Just an idea. Have fun shooting!

timparker_NikonD60

Hi Jeff. Thanks for the comments and the welcome!

That is SOOC, I just learned what that meant the other day!! I haven't gotten to the point of any type of POST so far. Still trying to learn all the terms, settings and such. That I am still kind of playing the point and shoot and hope for the best thing. )

I had been using an older copy of Paint Shop Pro and I just re-downloaded a newer version "Paint Shop Pro Photo X2" (I think thats the right name). I am going to mess a little on our vacation during downtime. But I am sure there is so much more to learn about that type of stuff that I will be reading for months again!

I will keep these comments and see what I can do on my journey. Thanks again for them!

jeffmeyers wrote:

Nice shot, and welcome to Dgrin. The only thing that bothers me about your image is the busy bokeh. Is that the result of post processing? Or is that the lens? My eye keeps getting distracted by the contrasty bokeh. Maybe you could mask the flower and adjust the contrast and blur the background a bit. Just an idea. Have fun shooting!

Chris H

Try to think about composition a bit more, you've got the flower head dead centre, which is a natural thing to do as that's where you're looking and if you're using single point focus, that's where the camera will focus. A simple but effective variation would have been to get lower, focus on the flower head, lock focus and then move the camera so that the flower head is on the thirds of the photograph.

If you're including a bee or an insect, make syre you can see some detail in them. Here's my attempt at a similar thing:

timparker_NikonD60

Nice Picture. I don't think I will be getting that detail with my 18-55MM. The bee in that picture actually dropped in just before I snapped it. The neighbor has quiet a few bees out there, as seen in the others on the flickr page.

I still have't "forced" myself into the thirds rule yet. I keep wanting to center everything. I will probably go back over to the neighbors and retry these again.

I am off though tomorrow for vacation. Driving to Texas from Ohio, so I hope to see some neat sights to snap some photos of!

Chris H wrote:

Try to think about composition a bit more, you've got the flower head dead centre, which is a natural thing to do as that's where you're looking and if you're using single point focus, that's where the camera will focus. A simple but effective variation would have been to get lower, focus on the flower head, lock focus and then move the camera so that the flower head is on the thirds of the photograph.

If you're including a bee or an insect, make syre you can see some detail in them. Here's my attempt at a similar thing: