signmeupscotty on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/signmeupscotty/art/Sourcery-137624524signmeupscotty

Deviation Actions

signmeupscotty's avatar

Sourcery

Published:
2.4K Views

Description

The title needs an explanation I think. The background for this photo is the cover of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Sourcery. Hence the title for this picture of a little dahlia.
Image size
600x800px 277.12 KB
Make
NIKON CORPORATION
Model
NIKON D80
Shutter Speed
10/1600 second
Aperture
F/9.0
Focal Length
105 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
Sep 20, 2009, 1:10:38 PM
© 2009 - 2024 signmeupscotty
Comments71
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Itti's avatar
:star::star::star::star-empty: Overall
:star::star::star::star-empty::star-empty: Vision
:star::star::star-half::star-empty::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Impact

This shot appealed to me. I like the colours and you've obviously thought about the background so that it coordinates nicely in tones with the flower itself. It's not too dark; it's nice pastel shades which don't detract from the flower itself.

I also think that the composition works nicely. The flower is towards the bottom half of the picture, which looks more pleasing than if it had been either slap-bang in the middle or towards the top of the frame. I like that you have left the leaves/bud things (I can't remember the scientific name) in and not cropped from the bottom of the flower.

It does look unfortunately like you've over-sharpened the image. Can you see the "halo" around the flower petals and the leaves? This is a classic sign of being too gung-ho with the unsharp mask. If you wanted to sharpen the middle of the flower more, you could have sharpened just this area and not the whole thing, which may have given a better effect. Alternatively, you could just have used less sharpening.

Also, if I look closely at the centre of the flower, it looks like it's suffering a bit from camera shake. Is this why you sharpened it? Perhaps a tripod at the time (or a shorter focal length or higher shutter speed) would have helped.

Nice tones though. This is a very peaceful image to look at.