lemon.JPG

I would appreciate any comments on improving my photo.

I would like make photos that (for lack of a better word) pop.

A) Find something REALLY interesting to share with your audience.
B) Focus with precision.
C) Experiment with different POV.

Chaitan, if flowers are going to be one of your passions, I would highly recommend a tripod. Then you'll be able to set up the image and try different f-stops for different depth-of-field effects without having to worry that your shutter speed is too slow. Also, as I mentioned in the Forum, be careful about getting too close with your 18-55 as its minimum focus distance is about 10 inches or so. If you find yourself wanting to get really, really close, then maybe you'll want to look at purchasing or borrowing a macro lens which is designed for that sort of thing. Best of luck!

"image sharpness', I see someone already mention a tripod and that's probably most important. There are so many factors in making a sharp image that pop .

1- Tripod to control shaking (sometimes you need cable even)

2- Image size, the larger the sensor the more details you image will come out since cropping from a small size image will decrease quality.

3- lighting will affect your sharpness presentation as well

4- contrast also affect you sharpness presentation.

So, I don't know of any direct tips that would help you since I don't know what you are using as equipment or the condition that you are shooting with. You will have to try and error by taking picture, analyze and make changes a long the way. Happy shooting!

One more thing, f-stop will make your image sharper in case of  closed-up photography (like flower). If you set you lens to say f2.8 then you depth of field is very shallow and that may result in some petal of flower would be sharp but not the whole flower. Say you close the lens down to F11 or (even smaller) then you depth of field will increase and the whole flower would be sharp instead of a few petals.

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/07/17/what-is-depth-of-field-how-aperture-focal-length-and-focus-control-whats-sharp/