High Stakes

Uploaded: February 24, 2008

Description

f/5.6, 1/500, 70-300mmVR@300mm, DSC_8239, 4:45PM, ISO200

Well, after two mornings this weekend shooting out on South Beach I decided I needed a little diversion. I had been eyeing this U-Pick field on my way to visit one of my business accounts for a while now as they have a couple of rows of flowers planted along with tomatoes, strawberries, and some other veggies. I grabbed this image as I was leaving having done the flowers. I was really surprised at how it came out being that it's void of any bright color. But the late afternoon sunlight and some DOF action seems to have made for an intriguing image. What do you think.............



Exif: F Number: 5.6, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 1/500 seconds, Flash: did not fire., ISO: 200, White balance: Auto white balance, FocalLength: 300.00 mm, Model: NIKON D40

Comments

Aimee C. Eisaman February 25, 2008

Yes some color would have been helpful, but this image still stands on its own without it. The way the sunlight is dancing on those plants makes for a beautiful shot! The green of the leaves is intriging! I'm thinking with this shot that I would have liked the DOF to be sharp to blurred instead of blurred/sharp/blurred. Thats just my HO of course! :-) But as always you can take "nothing" and turn it into "something"! #862784

Patrick Rouzes level-classic February 26, 2008

The blurred/sharp/blurred focus gives this a different but interesting feel,Michael!!! Amazing shades of green & beauty captured here also!!!Excellent job on this, indeed!!! #5553515

Michael S. Lazarus February 29, 2008

Thank you Aimee and Patrick for all your support. I guess the foreground focus/DOF blur ratio is a subjective thing as I'm getting feedback both ways (emails as well). I think what I was trying to accomplish was creating a "river" or 'channel" of detail running through the image. It's very interesting to hear what people "see". #5571658

Dennis Gay March 06, 2008

G'day Michael,

You have really come up with something out of the box here which shows your creative juices are flowing strongly and the image has such wonderful light and very calming green tones.

One thing that concerns me though is that my eye is wandering all over the place and it can't find a place to settle - a point of interest.
Your selective focus and shallow depth of field has tried very hard to overcome that by trying to force the eye to the area of sharp focus but as that area is such a narrow strip right across the centre of the image, it doesn't do the job. In my 'umble opinion this is because the area in good acceptable focus is so much smaller than the areas of the image which are out of focus, ie foreground and background.

I suggest shooting this again under the same light if possible and juggle your aperture and shutter speed (and possibly your Exposure Compensation,)to create the same exposure but with a deeper depth of field. I think sharp from foreground through to the midground, making sure you get a lot of those tomato stakes in focus.
HOWEVER!!!!!
To really make the scene pop and to give it a great point of interest, including a gardener/farmer wearing a red shirt would work a treat.

GB
Dennis #5604603

Donna La Mattino Pagakis March 07, 2008

I really like the lighting and depth here. Excellent pov! #5607218

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