Red on bokeh

[Ironwood]

This afternoon while waiting for the footy to start, on a whim I decided to take the camera (Nikon D7100, with Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro lens) outside with the intent to take a photo to enter into a weekly comp that is running on another forum.
The topic is simply "Bokeh". I don't have many flowers on at the moment that have got suitable backgrounds . I found this one, and with a bit of contortion I got enough distance between the flower and the background to give me what I hope can be interpreted as "Bokeh".
I have already submitted the photo, and I only get one shot, so I can't change it now.
But I just wonder if anyone wanted to give me a bit of critique on the photo, with its intended purpose in mind. And would you call it bokeh ?



105mm, f6.3, 1/80th, iso500. Handheld. Natural available light.

[Alan]

Looks like beautiful bokeh to me Love the red and green combo

But maybe a square crop? I'm not sure the top part does much

[Ironwood]

Thanks for your thoughts there Alan.
I had a bit of spare room to crop this one, and tried a few different crops, but I dont think I tried a square crop ( dont know why, thinking about it now )
When I get home tonight I will try a square crop and repost the shot for your thoughts.

[Isac]

The bokeh is spot on really Ironwood. Apart from different crop as Alan has suggested, I would do a horizontal flip. The reason being, we western worlders always read from left to right. It's not always possible to flip a photo though, especially when there are objects which would look stupid - like a sign or vehicle number plates etc . Sometimes it just doesn't look right for some silly reason. Hope you win the challenge.

[Ironwood]

Thanks Isac, thats some valuable critique there.
I am not sure if my Affinity software can flip a photo but I will investigate, and if I can, I will try that also.
Will post my results tonight, stay tuned

[Ironwood]

I had time for a quick play this afternoon.

Square crop as suggested by Alan.



Flipping the photo with Affinity turned out to be a very simple process, thanks Isac for pushing me to find that out.


And the square crop flipped.

[Alan]

I take Greg's point and I often flip my photos to see if I prefer them that way.

It's worthwhile thinking about how one's eyes move through a frame and how to keep them within it and exploring, rather than being led out of it

So what do you prefer?

On second thoughts I didn't think the bottom red bits of your photo added to the shot, so I tried removing them to simplify the composition as well as trying to emphasise and keep the beautiful Bokeh above. One is allowed to change one's mind after looking for awhile )
A great photo for composition discussion for sure - thanks

(will be interested to see how it goes in the comp. Good luck)

[Ironwood]

I tried a similar crop to this one Alan, but I felt I was losing too much of the bokeh background.
I am still trying to decide which version I like the most. I think I am off to have another play with it.

[Isac]

All good edits. One could go on forever. I like the square and Alan's minimalistic approach is also great. But consider this also (sorry - couldn't help myself)

[Ironwood]

Thats amazing Isac

[Isac]

Thanks Ironwood. Anything is possible. Even for those who have a Mac with Windows on it.

[Ironwood]

Here is the uncropped file, I should have put this one up here in the first place to see how others would have decided to crop it.
It has some PP but not as much as my final cropped version.

As you can see, I reluctantly had to crop a lot of the good bokeh out to get what I thought was the most balanced composition.
My mindset because of the challenge criteria, was firstly to have the frame filled with what I thought was bokeh, the flower was to try and compliment, as well as add interest without overpowering the bokeh in the background.
I think the image could be much improved if the flower was further to the right, and probably flipped as per Isacs reasonings. Because of the uncomfortable position I had to get into to get the shot, I didn't think about the composition as much as I probably should have at the time. I am not as flexible as I once was

[Ironwood]

Here is another one I did on the day I took the photo. I think this could have worked as well. Maybe improved by the flip.


I think to go any further with the project, I would have to reshoot the image to try and get a better composition in camera.

[Ironwood]

Rotated ?

[Alan]

So many options - amazing image

[Ironwood]

That ones got a good amount of the bokeh in it Alan, its a pity the flower is facing the edge of the frame, otherwise I think this would be my favourite.

[Alan]

Brad - you must know by now that anything is possible

I'm running out of pixels and sleep time though - have fun.



Oh

as an after thought - twirled

[Ironwood]

#1- yes I had thought of that, but my limited PP skills were not up to it

The twirl solves a lot of problems doesn't it

[Isac]

That's pretty cool Alan and Ironwood I like the original photo as well. Is it grabbing me enough though to make an EXPLODING twirl?? You'll just have to wait and see!

[Isac]

Something different using the Extrude filter.