Close up of Spindle Fruit

[RobSutton]

Just posted this in the Gallery Photo Critique section



What do you think of it?

[Wild-Woman]

The colours are lovely and it's huge compared with it's real size. I'd like to see more fruits in the picture. Julie

[Ollie]

Very nicely done Rob. I would have preferred just the single stem without the others in the background but of course I do realise that this was probably not possible. Still a very nice image though
Roger

[Dan Salter]

Very nice ! I had to id this in a recent assesment at college

Nice pic...ideally the closest of the pink part could have done with being pin sharp in focus otherwise its a good effort and a lovley underated plant.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

Nice pic...ideally the closest of the pink part could have done with being pin sharp in focus otherwise its a good effort and a lovley underated plant.

Oh I think thats a bit harsh - the stem and fruit are beautifully sharp,
DoF will have prevented _everything_ being in focus ;-)

For me if the fruit was not in focus, then the photo would
have failed.

I love it !

[Dorcas]

looks fine to me - what are you going to do with it - publish it?

[Paul mabbott]

I think it's very good showing the surface structure &c. Put too many fruits in and it becomes a mess (pretty and colourful, maybe), take it alone and you get no idea of the cluster form.
Given the problems with depth of field I think it's best to focus on the seed, as you've done, rather than the surrouding fruit.
[Anyone wanting to be pedantic about what is a fruit should look at The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens !]

[RobSutton]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

I think it's very good showing the surface structure &c. Put too many fruits in and it becomes a mess (pretty and colourful, maybe), take it alone and you get no idea of the cluster form.
Given the problems with depth of field I think it's best to focus on the seed, as you've done, rather than the surrouding fruit.
[Anyone wanting to be pedantic about what is a fruit should look at The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens !]

I often find plant photography more of a problem than insects, birds or other animals because of the problem of choosing what to use as the "focal point" of the photo. With animals the eye is the natural thing to focus on. To some extent if that's sharp you can afford to let much of the rest go out of focus. With plants I find it much more difficult to define the part to focus on. Here I chose to focus on the orange bit (avoiding any terminological problems) and lose focus on the very front. When I first printed it off, I was happy with it but then (as Dan suggested) I started to notice more and more the lack of focus on the front pink bit. I guess I should have tried to squeeze a little bit of extra depth of field out of it - difficult without allowing the upper fruits to gain importance.

Thanks to all of you for your comments - more would still be welcome.

[Dan Salter]

Hi rob, its nice that you agree. Its just my point of view after all ( and you wanted critique) and i just replied on what i first thought when i viewed the pic and i hear what you are all saying but ill stick with my view on this one....but i also accept plants are tricky things. It just confuses my eye too much with that foreground out of focus.