More Flowery Shots.

A splash of colour with the K1 MKII and DFA 100 WR







A similar one from before;

Three quite different shots. The first works well for me, flower and background well separated by both colour and in/out of focus. Definitely my favourite . The second would work for me if the background were more blurred (like the first). The last has promise but to my mind would benefit from either having a clear centre of attention that draws the eye or being so out of focus that it's an abstract study in light and form.

EXIF data says that all three were taken at f11. Was that deliberate? Or has the EXIF data either been garbled or I'm reading it wrongly? For the second image a wider aperture would have made the background more out of focus. For the second, I'd have focused on the dandelion seed, taken shots at several apertures and selected whichever looked the best. An f2.8 lens gives plenty of scope for experimentation .

One final thought. Crop the third image just below the dandelion seed, keep the bottom part. It's now a much stronger image, an abstract of lines and light.

Steve

"EXIF data says that all three were taken at f11. Was that deliberate?"
Yes it was, bit of an experiment, so I'm glad you noticed, I had taken the same photo the day or two earlier at f2.8, both instances using manual focus and F. peaking. However the f2.8 ones, several of, were not to my liking hence the trial at f11. I chose the f11 as more clarity/sharpness, (unfortunately I must have deleted those at f2.8 or I would have shared one here) it's as if the f2.8 didn't quite get the focus as sharp? I wanted the delicate petals nice and sharp on the edges, at f2.8 I was failing to achieve this, sadly. But yes what a surprise that f11 still showed OOF and nice bokeh. Thank you for your reply BTW.

Interesting. I've had a look at the apertures chosen for my recent photos of small(-ish) flowers (geranium etc.). They were mostly f5.6 or f8, when the intention was for the entire flower to be pretty much in focus, mostly f2.8 or f4 when I wanted only a specific part of the flower to be in focus. That was with a crop sensor though (K3), not full frame.

One other thing that stood out was how many shots were taken to make sure that just one of them was the "right" one - often 5 or 6 or more, varying aperture, position (often to vary the background), focus or even just repeating the shot because the flower was moving slightly in a breeze. Thank goodness it's digital not film!

Steve