Swarovski crystals

[mediyoga]

Tried some thing. here goes---------any comments to improve appreciated.

[mediyoga]

Here is another--------

[24Peter]

Krishna - these are really nice attempts. I love the warms colors and esp. like the first one a lot. The only comment there would be to stop down a little bit (smaller apeture) since the top stem (with the nice sparkle) seems a little soft. I'm not sure what lens you used or what your focus point was, but having all the stems in sharp focus would be nice. The second seems very underexposed on my computer. But I'm sure if it were brightened up a bit it would be a good one. I notice a lot of your shots seem to be on the dark side. If it's not what you intended, maybe your monitor needs to be calibrated?

[mediyoga]

Thanks Peter.

1) I used an aperture of 5- 5.6 ., I guess that was not enough. I wll try f8 today and repost. The swan was intentionally shot- just to make a subtle suggestion of light on it.

2) I used a tripod and cable. The auto focus did confirm a central point in focus on the petals, but I guess as each is in a different focal plane I should have gone for at least F 8?
Thanks for your encouragement. :)

[aparmley]

I'd like to see it brighter like Peter suggested and I'd like to see a more accurate white balance, unlike Peter, I think crystals should appear cool. . .

[mediyoga]

Thanks aparmley.
One question- the auto focus points are activated by more light. I used a torch to illuminate the crystals, and the room light was switched off.
1) In this situation if I used a F8 or higher ( to keep all petals in focus ) how will the auto focus work as more light will be cut off - should I then switch to manual focus ?
cheers

[mediyoga]

here is a snap of the autofocus points- I wonder why tthe second one below the first did not light up? Is it because of the lens? I used a 17- 85 is

[noyjimi]

The center point is more sensitive than the others. Coincidentally, the center point in this case also appears to have fallen on a higher contrast area than the bottom one so that even favors it more.

[RichNY]

I'm wondering how the pictures would have looked if you had a reflector bouncing light back on the other side of the crystal or if this were top lit.

[mediyoga]

Rich
top lit it is - will repost today
Noy thanks a lot, will repost