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Critiques [Translate]

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• farradhim (1362)
• [2008-03-24 12:01]

colors are great, nice black background, but the flowers are blurred some, should be more in focus
Jacline

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• spiker26 (290)
• [2008-09-04 18:08]

Hans, it is difficult to fire up members or anybody else for that matter with flower shots. Most flower shots are considered boring by the audience. You can see that you had 305 views, one comment and only one point. Not that points are important. It is a heart breaker! But DON’T let that stop you from experimenting.
I got simular results with flowers, even though I’d spend an hour to experiment with various lights and lighting. Trying to get a ‘novelty factor’ in a flower shot is like trying to find a needle in the proverbial haystack. Many have tried and few have succeeded. I know, I fail many times despite great effort. By the way I use black as my favourite backdrop too, it goes well with flowers of all colours, ask any woman.
Your orchids are beautiful and very photogenic but as Jacline said, they are out of focus and f:5.6 will just not cut it. As tempting as it is, you might get a better result with a very tight crop of just one blossom or part of it and try to shine a small light through the back of the blossom as this might highlight the ‘mouth’ or ‘throat’ of the orchid.
I have the 18-200mm VR lens too and use it 90% of the time, but do not use it for macro shots. If you want true macro shots (have a look at my site) you do need the Nikkor 105mm lens, no if’s-and-but’s. If you can’t afford one, wait until you can. You have some good gear but you need a better lens for macro shots.
If a macro lens is within your consideration, here are a couple of websites which might be beneficial.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/105vr.htm
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/105af.htm
Hope this will help you, I’ll keep watching!