Trying out Greg Gormans b/w conversion tips //www.gormanphotography.com/bw_conversion.pdf
Lighting was provided by a torch - expertly perched on the cup of pens next to my computer. I took a 20 or so photos before deciding to use an old chopping block for some extra texture.
the focus isn't exactly right - using a manual focus lens in a dark room is quite difficult, esp using f1.4 and f2. And I'm not really happy about the blown highlights on the ends of the petals.
And the bloody flowers decided to close up 30 seconds after I picked them - not exactly what I had in mind!!!
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Hi, as requested, here is an indepth critique of your submission.
First Impression - the most important one: You've made this critique pretty easy on me, because you see most of the issues with the photo yourself. Overall, the photo is intriguing though.
Composition: I'm not fond of the centered vertically comp in this photo. I think shifting the whole composition to the bottom of the frame would have worked better for you.
Subject: I think the light and texture of the cutting board emphasize your subject well. Good job there. The cutting board was a good idea.
Technical (Color, focus, and light): Color: I like the B&W conversion technique. It might be a bit too contrasty though, you may want to scale it back some.
Focus: You see the issues yourself, just a bit soft.
Light: Blown highlights as you said.
To grow its vote?: The technical issues you brought up: so you know where the shot went wrong. Also, a little stronger composition would have helped.
Summary: I like the idea and the shot. I kinda like that the flower is closed, it seems to work well with the dark photo.
Has the beginnings of a decent image, I think. It looks as though youv'e simply pushed the contrast quite far, when to get decently detailed black and white from digital requires more subtle work; it also has extremely shallow depth of field, leaving me unsure exactly which part of your image you consider to be the main point. The bright tips of one flower have become over-exposed, and either that depth if field or your processing hasn't left much to see in the other areas.
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