A Flower (I don't know what it's called!)

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Is there anything I could do to better take or rework the photo?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Any pertinent technical details:

OPPO F1s - 13 MP, f/2.2, 1/3", PDAF, HDR mode

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.

Christopher: Welcome to NPN. I hope you’ll find this to be a place where you can learn and be encouraged. This is a day lily, named such because they open for a day and then close up and shrivel the next. You have some interesting elements here but they don’t work together as well as would be ideal. The flower itself is well captured and rendered. The bud would be a nice addition except that to get it in the frame at this angle you bring the background with some open sky into the frame which tends to pull the eye.

Large flowers like day lilies can be hard to shoot with a short focal length since you can’t help but have a lot of BG in the shot if you include the entire flower. I did a pretty aggressive crop of your frame. It gets rid of most of the open BG but does cut away the bud. It’s one of those trade offs we often have to make in composition. It’s great to have you aboard and looking forward to more of your work. >=))>

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Welcome to NPN, Christopher! It is indeed a great place to share your images with other photographers, and get some feedback on some ways to improve, either on that shot, with different post processing, or ideas of a better way to capture similar shots when out shooting the next time. I know I have learned a wealth of info here in the year and a half I have been a member. That said, I agree with Bill’s comments on your beautiful day lily capture.

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Hey thanks a lot! This is very useful information. I am sure to see you around here at NPN.

Hi, thanks a bunch. I’m sure to see you in future posts here at NPN!

Christopher, welcome to NPN. I like how you tried to get both the main bloom and the bud in this view. Assuming that’s was your goal, I think that tilting your camera up just a bit and to the right just a bit would be an improvement. Those angle changes would move the bud a bit further from both the top and the right edges. This also looks like it was taken either in the shade or as a cloud blocked the sun. The result lets the details show up nicely, but means that the yellows don’t “shine” as much as if they had caught some direct sunlight. Making choices like that as you take a picture is a big part of what makes photography challenging.

Welcome to NPN, Christopher. You’ve already gotten some good feedback, in detail, which I agree with. Some basic philosophy I try to bear in mind: What is the subject? What is in the frame that will confuse or take away from the subject? What is in the frame that will support and keep the eye on the subject? Is the picture worth taking in the first place? Then there is all the tech stuff, which usually catches me, like DOF, dynamic range, exposure compensation, ad infinitum. But the subject always comes first.