Please Critique - All Advice Highly Appreciated!

[ddt0725]

My initial first thought was: flowers at a funeral. I think the background is very hard black.

Please don't apologize for your honest crtique. I have tough skin, I can take it! [] Besides, a guy I work with made the same "funeral" statement so it must have some truth to it! Actually, I attended a local art studio this weekend to view digital photos of winners for a recent contest they held and one of the photographers had numerous flower photos with each one having the "very" black background so I thought I'd give it a try.


Thanks for your advice ...it is greatly appreciated. Rather than licking any wounds, it just gives me more determination to get it right.


Denise

[ddt0725]

Were you using direct flash? If so, try to swivel the flash off to the side and have it bounce off a white piece of poster board or paper.
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I will give that a try. Heck, white poster board will be the cheapest thing I've had to buy so far unless Canon has some special type that costs $$ [:P].


Have a great day!


Denise

[ddt0725]

A very nice pic! I agree with some of the previous comments about the baby's breath being a bit of a distraction, but I think that's mostly due to the black background. To me, a featureless monochromatic background is best used with an uncluttered subject - a 'busier' subject needs a somewhat more complex background (through still thrown out of focus with a thin DOF for the subject). The image on the left below is an example I shot last week. For your shot, some deep green foliage (fern fronds?) might have made a nice background.


The lighting also looks a little stark to me - was the 580EX II mounted on the camera? One 'gadget' you might consider is an off-camera shoe cord like the CanonOC-E3. You can hand-hold the flash for different lighting angles, and maintain E-TTL metering. Note that you can even skip the off-camera cord and manually fire the flash. For the example on the right below, the exposure was set to -2.0 EV and I hand-held my 480EX II and manually fired it (with the pilot button)with the flash held 3-4 feet from the flower,4-5 times from different anglesduring the 5 s exposure. Took a couple of tries to get the look I wanted, but that's one great thing about macro shots of flowers indoors - you have all the time you need to set up the shot!





Rebel T1i,EF 100mm f/2.8<span style="color: #ff0000;"]LMacro IS USM, f/9.0, ISO200; left image, 10 s with ambient light, right image, 5 s with manual flash
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I have been thinking about the OC-E3 but have been hesitant to purchase since many reviews state it breaks very easily. I think I will still look into getting it and see for myself how it is. Thank you so much for your advice and by the way ...your photos are AWESOME!


Denise

[neuroanatomist]

Thanks, Denise!!

Heck, white poster board will be the cheapest thing I've had to buy so farunless Canon has some special typethat costs $$

What, you mean you don't already have the Canon WPB-50 MkII?!? It's a 50 cm square of poster board specifically designed to bounce the flash from a 430EX II or a 580EX II. Note that if you have an older flash model, such as the 550EX, you need the MkI version of the WPB-50, and smaller flash heads such as the 270EX can use the WPB-30. Yes, there are cheaper 3rd party alternatives, but they have silly features like a gold or silver reflective surface on the back side, instead of the Canon logo... []

[Ehcalum]

You forgot that they are also not compatible with any of the EZ series flashes.

[ddt0725]

What, you mean you don't already have the Canon WPB-50 MkII?!? It's a 50 cm square of poster board specifically designed to bounce the flash from a 430EX II or a 580EX II. Note that if you have an older flash model, such as the 550EX, you need the MkI version of the WPB-50, and smaller flash heads such as the 270EX can use the WPB-30. Yes, there are cheaper 3rd party alternatives, but they have silly features like a gold or silver reflective surface on the back side, instead of the Canon logo...

So true! Thank you (and Andy)for the much needed laugh during my workday today, glad I took a sneak peek in during my lunchbreak![]


Denise