Blue Bells Blur Bells

Dedicated to the Baron of Blur himself Jamie Kraft. I had a go at this

blurry shot after Jamie made some suggestions regarding a recent

image of a lighthouse. I chose to photograph the flower with the

maximum aperture of f1.8 to maximise the blur effect. I'm not at all sure

that this is what Jamie had in mind, and its not my usual genre so any

suggestions are more than welcome. Thank You

This background is beautiful, but the other one ("Blur Bells") looks nervous and jiggly to me.  It seems like this one was taken closer to the bluebells, pushing the fern further out of focus.  I guess you pulled in and to the right for this one, and that you cropped the other one more than it might appear?

Great picture.  best, jamie

Sincere Thanks for your thoughtful analysis.  You are correct, I did get a bit more up close and personal for this one, its tricky though because you can't get too close otherwise you can't focus, so wriggling back and force through the wet undergrowth was the only option, until I could find a suitable focal distance and composition. I really liked the blurry fern and wanted to include it. I took approx 20 shots and kept the two I have uploaded.........not as easy as it looks this flower photography!

Best Regards

Alf

crispy just a bit further back.  Two facts (at least) are operative.  First, when you're close, the reciprocal nature of diopters and light curvature magnify small changes.  Second, camera lenses are not simple thin lenses, so their blur behaviour is not simple, it's hard to predict.  best, j

A noble early effort!  Technically the images is fine.  However, I believe it might suffer a bit from your landscape tendencies.  Your subject in focus is a small percentage of the overall capture.  I read that you liked the fern leaf in the image, perhaps it would have been better behind your subject, get in a bit closer and go vertical.  Personal opinion is that in focus region of your capture should be at the least 25-30%, I think that you might be less than ten.  This gives the viewer a sense that the entire image is OOF, rather than find the one small region that is in focus.  I hope this is some help as well.  Best regards and wishes...

-Dave

"Buttery" yeah I like buttery, and unpredictable makes it all the more interesting, not least challenging.

Cheers Jamie!

Alf

DAVE

Many Thanks for your interest and thoughtful suggestions, much appreciated.  It was quite difficult to find isolated specimens, much less ones with a fern close by, but I take on board your suggestions regarding composition.  As for the percentage, I would bow to your greater knowledge with reference to the right amount of in focus area. This is a bit of an experimental journey for me, but my aim was to create a single point of sharpness within an area of varying blur, using the lens at its maximum aperture. I think I achieved what I set out to do, but I think you are right in terms of appeal. Thanks again for offering a different perspective, it is indeed very helpful to get a cross section of views.

Best Regards

Alf

Wonderful!

Good to hear from you & Many Thanks!

Alf

Nice work. I might have moved to the left to minimize that very bright background mid to upper left. What say you?

Yes, I think you are right, the blue bells would have looked better with that fern behind them. 

Many Thanks Tony! 

Alf