Beauty and the beast

Mr. Quiet

Give me the best C&C that you all got!!!

NeilL

Fresh and surprising idea!

Technique is good and suggests new confidence from you.

I would like to see more of both subjects, more body, wings, legs of the insect, more focus of the flower. It seems a little empty to me of detail-interest and drama. Bokeh-background, color, are excellent. I wonder about the white corner bottom left?

Right-on title. The menace and the virginal display of the flower.

Hope you do more exploring of ideas like this.

N

Mr. Quiet

The second try, haha!
Thanks! I never noticed the white in the bottom left corner, but I do now! It is part of the wing.

What about this?

NeilL

I think it's a step in the right direction. Looks like you increased the saturation of the whole image. I think I preferred the paler flower. So perhaps try mask-brushing out some of the saturation there, or use the desaturation brush. The beast, though is more effective, I think.

As I said before, for me the flower needs also to be at least partly in focus. So this image might really have required a composite of two images for it to get to where you imagined it (or the insect to have been right on the flower - DOF is extremely narrow).

Mr. Quiet

True, but if I make the flower focused, then the viewers eyes would be fighting to see the Beast and the Beauty, which is never good, right?

This will sound like a dumb Q, but how do I change the DOF? does it have to do with the distance I am from the subject, of does it have to do with the zoom I used? Of the lens itself?

Maestro

Second image is much better with interesting composition. And I will agree with you in that I like the out of focus flower.

Mr. Quiet

Thanks!

NeilL

Mr. Quiet wrote:

True, but if I make the flower focused, then the viewers eyes would be fighting to see the Beast and the Beauty, which is never good, right?

This will sound like a dumb Q, but how do I change the DOF? does it have to do with the distance I am from the subject, of does it have to do with the zoom I used? Of the lens itself?

DOF is the area in the perspective of a shot which is in focus. It depends on aperture and distance from the subject. Larger aperture, closer to the subject, narrower the DOF. A handy rule of thumb which the Strobist suggests, is to think of DOF in the same way as you do light. The more focused the light is on the subject, the less the area before and behind the subject is lit, but with the area in front being narrower than the area behind, and receiving more intense light. Just so, the larger the aperture and the closer the focus distance, the less the areas in front of and behind the subject are in focus, with the area in front being narrower than behind, but more sharply in focus.

It always helps to understand a photo if you also post the stats. What was your aperture and how far were you from the subject(s)?

Areas in equal focus can confuse an image if it relies on distance cues. In your image, both the subjects are interpreted as being quite close to each other, so having them both in focus, more or less, would not be a problem.

As it is, the relationship implied by the title is not there. There is an insect very stronlgy present, and a flower dissolved in the background.

Mr. Quiet

I got you!
The movie! In it, beauty is barely seen, but beast is very dominant!

I took this picture when I was in the States last time, and I believe I used the GREEN setting....Auto! I don't use it any more though, so I have improved a little since last year!

NeilL

Mr. Quiet wrote:

The movie! In it, beauty is barely seen, but beast is very dominant!...

Your movie, not mine!

Mr. Quiet wrote:

... I took this picture when I was in the States last time, and I believe I used the GREEN setting....Auto! I don't use it any more though, so I have improved a little since last year!

Haven't we all!

N

Mr. Quiet

NOT mine, my brothers! !