C&C, PP etc.

spiralbound

Hi, I took a mediocre picture of a daisy today. I've taken a bunch of similar photographs of small flowers, and will continue to do so again, so any recommendations for future photos and processing would be very much appreciated. This is the RAW, straight out of camera shot.



It's quite boring, and probably over-exposured, but I would like to hear (and/or see) what other people would do with a similar photo. I have Lightroom, and I'm open to trying out Gimp and other free stuff, but can't quite stretch to Photoshop at the moment.

Thanks!

mikka631

FWIW and IMO,
A small scissors to remove some of the blades of grass would go along way to improving this shot before you get to the PP phase.
Composition, I know rules are made to be broken but the RoT would also help here, though this could be done PP as you have plenty of scope to play around with the cropping tool.
You don't need to stretch to the full blown Photoshop, the Photoshop Elements 9 version on Amazon is quite reasonable.........../Mick

kelly1

Yes, I'd say a tad overexposed and the dead grass around the flower doesn't help. If it was all green grass it would look a lot better.

Tin Foil Hat

spiralbound wrote: »

Hi, I took a mediocre picture of a daisy today. I've taken a bunch of similar photographs of small flowers, and will continue to do so again, so any recommendations for future photos and processing would be very much appreciated. This is the RAW, straight out of camera shot.


It's quite boring, and probably over-exposured, but I would like to hear (and/or see) what other people would do with a similar photo. I have Lightroom, and I'm open to trying out Gimp and other free stuff, but can't quite stretch to Photoshop at the moment.

Thanks!

If you can't afford PS you should get Elements 9 instead. It's £45stg on amazon at the moment. Great value. GIMP is a nightmare.

Hugh_C

Get a lot closer to your subject. Or use a macro if you can borrow one. Try shooting it in early morning or late evening, the light will be more interesting. Shoot at f/1.8 or as wide open as your lens will allow do get a really narrow depth of field.

spiralbound

Thanks all. I can't justify more software or a macro lens at the moment, but picking a better subject/tidying up with scissors (never thought of that!) will help!

WillyWonka

I'm guessing you're at the max range of your 18-55 kit lens?

If so, try to get closer and use a higher aperture. This might give you a better depth of field.

Kintarō Hattori

A basic macro lens doesn't have to be expensive. I took the above photo with an old 70s/80s manual focus lens. Trying to get decent looking flowery shots from a kit lens can be very difficult, so you're really best plumping out a little bit for some hardware. When it comes to flowery shots DOF is rather important and that's something a kit lens doesn't do very well.

kelly1

WillyWonka wrote: »

This might give you a better depth of field.

What's "better" DOF?

AnCatDubh

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

GIMP is a nightmare.

ka-bluey. you just need to love it some more

Tin Foil Hat

AnCatDubh wrote: »

ka-bluey. you just need to love it some more

Nah! It really fukkin sucks. I hate it.

Teferi

I like the differing colours between the dead and live grass myself.

As for Gimp - I think it is grand. It's perhaps not exactly user friendly but it does the job for the limited understanding of editing I have and use it for.

FoxT

The photo is OK... the grass is a bit distracting.

I have a sigma 17-70 'macro' zoom which isn't a proper macro but does a good job with subjects like this, and the lens itself isn't expensive. It allows you to get quite close to your subject.

I'd also suggest either/or

- Find a tall daisy. That will put the grass more out of focus.
or
- Get a bit of black card or cloth, & put it on the ground around the daisy, so you get a nice uncluttered background.

Finally, GIMP is, in my view, very good - but you have to learn how to use it. There's a great free resource here:

http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html


Regards, FoxT

K_user

I agree with most of the comments here, it’s a tad overexposed and looks a little lost.

You need to isolate the daisy more, or put it into context in some other way – as in a wide angle shot of a field of daisy’s.

Find the tallest example you can. To avoid the wind bring a block of some sort and a reflector if you can.

Heres one I took a few weeks ago, not the best sample you'll find, but it helps to explain what I mean: