[LizBarnes]

Another rose, again taken last weekend, and the fourth blooming for this plant which was just put into the garden this spring. Weather this October has been unusually warm for this far north in Ontario, 74F the day this was taken. Used ISO800 as it was blowing a bit and didn't want the bloom blurred, no flash, exposure time 1/60, f4, focal length 7.8mm.

(Image has been very cropped - it was too big to post.)

Comments and critiques are welcome! Thanks for looking.

[Dean]

Hi Liz. I am puzzled by your photo. What camera was this taken with? You have quite a lot of depth of field for such a wide aperture. The high ISO has made the flower a bit noisy, but not bad. One criticism; you could have removed the dead leaves from out of the bloom before taking the photo.

[LizBarnes]

Hi Liz. I am puzzled by your photo. What camera was this taken with? You have quite a lot of depth of field for such a wide aperture. The high ISO has made the flower a bit noisy, but not bad. One criticism; you could have removed the dead leaves from out of the bloom before taking the photo.

Hi Dean - using the Fuji FinePix S4300. Not quite a DSLR, more like a bridge between that and a P and S, but has a lot of similar options as a DLSR, including the viewfinder, and it fit the budget.

(Had there been someone more agile around at the time, would have had the dead leaves removed Unfortunately, the rose bush is small, under a very low young tree, and can't bend enough to get down that far - pushing 80 yrs. pretty hard. Probably too old to be trying photography again as a hobby, but I'm working at it!)

Used the high ISO because the light was bad and wind off the lake was up. Perhaps 400 would have been a better choice? Digital photograpy is so new to me, so it's confusing still.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look, and appreciate your comments.

Liz

[Dean]

The Fuji is well named. capable of Fine pics indeed. I was just confused with trying to relate the camera settings to full frame settings. And good for you taking up photography again. Never too old, I hope. We have several members in our camera club who are in their 80s, and produce some cracking shots.

[James Tate]

Now I think that's a lovely composition and I'm happy with the dead leaves in the bloom - just personal taste of course. The picture would benefit from some work in an image editing programme. Contrast and brightness could be tweaked. But I'm being picky. The main points are, it was well spotted and well composed. The background provides a very good setting for the main subject and I think you have achieved exactly what you set out to achieve.

[KeithB]

Nice image Liz, but why the high ISO setting? It has introduced a lot of noise into your image that could have been avoiding by shooting at a much lower ISO and a faster shutter speed would have dealt with any movement concerns. Keep going girl, I hope I am still shooting when I 'm in my eighties (If I get there!)

[LizBarnes]

Nice image Liz, but why the high ISO setting? It has introduced a lot of noise into your image that could have been avoiding by shooting at a much lower ISO and a faster shutter speed would have dealt with any movement concerns. Keep going girl, I hope I am still shooting when I 'm in my eighties (If I get there!)

Thanks for the critique, Keith. Will try the lower ISO /faster shutter speed, next summer, on the same rose bush, (if I get there ) Wondering if post-processing could reduce the noise? Will have to dig into that. Maybe I've been confusing ISO with the old ASA ratings from film days? Better re-set the camera.

One thing I really miss with this digital camera is a built-in light metre! My old 35mm camera, Russian-built Zenit (sp) circa 1980's with a great zoom lens, had one, and what a life saver that was ! Just too darn much information to remember today - maybe I should just stick to one of the auto modes (about 18 of them built in to this Fuji thing). Would make life a lot less complex !

Thanks again - really appreciate your comments.

Liz