Cherry blossom images - need critique image 1

Have 4 shots of cherry blossoms for critiquing. Was supposed to be a cherry blossom festival at Jinhae, South Korea but postponed a week. New to the dslr game and still learning the settings etc of the 450D and the ef-s 17-55mm lens. So I need to find out where I buggered up so I hopefully will improve the shots next weekend. Sorry about the multiple posts but I couldn't get my 4 photos and the descriptions on the one thread (more hopeless with computers than the camera [:)] Many thanks for the help.


This image: Shooting mode: Aperture priority, Shutter speed: 1/8, Aperture: 22.0, Metering mode: Partial, Exposure compensation: 0, ISO: 100, Focal length: 55mm


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Hi Darren,


First off, you can add more pics to a post in the same way you added the first one - just keep clicking the media button.


To simplify things for everyone else, I'll go ahead and post your other 3 shots here - if the basic subject is the same, it's usually most helpful to be able to look at them all at once, so people can pick the image(s) they think are best and worst, and say why.


Image #2:


Shooting mode: Aperture priority, Shutter speed: 1/4, Aperture: 22.0, Metering mode: Partial, Exposure compensation: 0, ISO: 100, Focal length: 28mm


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Image #3:





Shooting mode: Aperture priority, Shutter speed: 1/500, Aperture: 2.8, Metering mode: Partial, Exposure compensation: 0, ISO: 100, Focal length: 28mm


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Image #4:





Shooting mode: Aperture priority, Shutter speed: 1/8, Aperture: 22.0, Metering mode: Partial, Exposure compensation: 0, ISO: 100, Focal length: 55mm


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Now for the critique. I like #3 best, both from a composition standpoint and because of these 4 images, only #3 is actually sharp. The background is a bit blown out, but overall this is the best of the bunch. I still would have been inclined to zoom in and also probably move closer to the blossoms, both to increase the focus on the subject and to minimize the effect of the over-bright background.


#1 and #4 are being affected by camera shake - IS can't work miracles, so with those settings you'd need to be on a tripod. The 1/focal length guideline applies to full-frame angle of view, so at 55mm on a 1.6x crop body you'd need ~1/90 s to handhold; IS on the 17-55mm will give you ~3 stops, meaning you'd need a shutter speed of at least 1/10 s. You could have increased your aperture and/or bumped your ISO up a bit to get the shutter speeds faster (I'd say at least to 1/30 s, more if you're 'shaky').


#4, besides being blurry, seems to lack a clear subject and instead is just 'busy' - I don't see what you're trying to accomplish with that shot at all.


I like the composition of #2, nice leading lines. It's a little off-level (needs to be rotated clockwise a bit). But, the sky is blown out, which leads to a lack of contrast with the blossoms. You could have stopped down a bit (EC -1), but you'd lose some of the details in the shadows below. If this was shot on the same day as the other pics, you've got a blue sky to work with - in that case, a circular polarizer could have darkened the sky and helped the shot a lot (but the loss of 2 stops of light with a CPL would also likely mean bumping the ISO or better yet, using a tripod).

Hi Darren


The aperture (f22) on three of the shots is extremely narrow. I am sure some of the more experienced posters on here can tell you about the minimum aperture you can use before diffraction becomes an issue. I would have thought an aperture of somewhere around f8 would have given you the depth of field you are looking for without requiring such a long shutter speed handheld. There are also DOF calculators online if you wanted to get a more precise idea but trial and error is the way to go I think.


My other personal preference is to use a circular polarising filter for the shots where there is bright daylight on trees/plants. It wont always help as its dependent on the angle of the lens to the reflections off the subject but it might help with the saturation of some of the colours such as the greens in Image 2.


For image 3 you might have stopped down the aperture maybe to f4 to try and get the flower directly above the subject flower in focus also. Its too close to really knock into the background so it may be better just to bring it in focus also. It always hard in these situations to get a nice isolated flower to target.


Sorry to pick on the 4th shot but maybe you could have avoided the floodlight.


Hope that helps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darren

Have 4 shots of cherry blossoms for critiquing. Was supposed to be a cherry blossom festival at Jinhae, South Korea but postponed a week. New to the dslr game and still learning the settings etc of the 450D and the ef-s 17-55mm lens. So I need to find out where I buggered up so I hopefully will improve the shots next weekend. Sorry about the multiple posts but I couldn't get my 4 photos and the descriptions on the one thread (more hopeless with computers than the camera [img]/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img] Many thanks for the help.


This image: Shooting mode: Aperture priority, Shutter speed: 1/8, Aperture: 22.0, Metering mode: Partial, Exposure compensation: 0, ISO: 100, Focal length: 55mm


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.38.97/Img_5F00_0910IMG_5F00_0910_5F00_small.jpg[/img]
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This was the only picture I could see.... But....


It looks a little blurry. I don't know if this is filtering or focus, or just that the shutter speed is way too long. I'd suggest upping the ISO and opening up the aperture.


Aperture value F/22 is pretty extreme. That's like you want to get EVERYTHING in focus. But, with elements that close, you really can't, so what you get is a cluttered background.


You've got a VERY high contrast picture here, in that the content has stuff in direct sunlight, and the foreground blossoms are in the shade, which means that you'll probably have to either just blow out the highlights, or play with the curves a bit in post processing.


I was playing around in a similar situation a few days ago, with the same issues....


http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...002700x467.jpg





Shooting ModeAperture-Priority
Tv( Shutter Speed )1/4000
Av( Aperture Value )2.8
Metering ModeCenter-Weighted Average Metering
Exposure Compensation0
ISO Speed200
LensEF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Focal Length24.0mm


Granted, the post processing isn't accurate, (not only is the saturation boosted, but the tone curves would give a purist a headache) but that wasn't really what I wanted either, but maybe given that qualification, you might find something useful in it....

I can see number three now...


For reasons previously stated, I like it best.


I'd still play with it in post processing, but it's a good capture.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jnort002

The aperture (f22) on three of the shots is extremely narrow. I am sure some of the more experienced posters on here can tell you about the minimum aperture you can use before diffraction becomes an issue.
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I'm certainly not claiming to be one of the more experienced members of the forums here but looking at the ISO 12233 Chart comparisons I can tell you this much:


At 35mm (which is roughly in the middle of the focal lengths you were using for these shots) the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 ISappears to be sharpest at around f/4.0 and starts to get softer (albeit very manageable) at f/8.0. By f/16 there is visible softness compared to f/4.0.


So shooting at f/22 is obviously going to make things worse in terms of soft images.On top of this your shutter speed will be significantly slower so motion blur or camera shake becomes more of an issue.


I'd suggest trying to shoot at f/8.0 to get a decent depth of field while still retaining image quality. I understand that you're probably trying toachieve a deep depth of field and that's why you've stopped down to f/22. By all means, if you're happy with the potentially softer images thatmay be produced when shooting at f/22 then leave it at that. It's always a trade off between depth of field and the capabilities on your lens at narrow apertures. Certain lenses (such as the EF-S10-22mm ultrawide angle lens) have a longer depth of field by nature which might interest you, but it'll never have the image quality of the 17-55mm f/2.8 when used at the appropriate apertures.


Hope this helps.


Cheers, Ben

I'm pretty sure the softness from diffraction will completely disappear when resizing for web. The softness in these images is likely due to shake. A lower f value to bring up shutter speed, a sturdy tripod w/ IS disabled for non tripod-sensing lenses, and using the 2 second timer (to avoid mirror shake) are all methods that could be used to reduce blur.