Black-eyed Susan in the morning light

[Bob_B]

An experiment with a 70-200mm, 1.4x extender and 35mm extension tube. Yes, no, maybe?

[Jeremy Roussak]

Works for me.

Jeremy

[John R]

I think it is reasonably good. But since you are looking for critique, I would say two things that I don't like:
1) The top leaf above the flower is disruptive to the flow of the image and draws too much attention. 2) You have a large black area under the flower which draws the eye downward and out of the image.  The black areas almost work (except the area I mentioned), in that they act like a vignette. I would suggest using clothes pin to tie back the leaf next time you come across a similar situation. Macro is hard work because even the out of focus areas create shapes, lines, textures and colours,  that have to be taken into account when composing.

JR

[Bob_B]

Thanks Jeremy.

[Bob_B]

I think it is reasonably good. But since you are looking for critique, I would say two things that I don't like:
1) The top leaf above the flower is disruptive to the flow of the image and draws too much attention. 2) You have a large black area under the flower which draws the eye downward and out of the image.  The black areas almost work (except the area I mentioned), in that they act like a vignette. I would suggest using clothes pin to tie back the leaf next time you come across a similar situation. Macro is hard work because even the out of focus areas create shapes, lines, textures and colours,  that have to be taken into account when composing.

JR

Great points! Thanks for the tips John. Here's a quick attempt to correct a few points you brought up.

[Chris Kern]

Macro is hard work because even the out of focus areas create shapes, lines, textures and colours,  that have to be taken into account when composing.

A related point: where flowers are concerned, my experience is that it's often best to frame the subject very tightly to eliminate background distractions.  (That link is to a sunflower rather than a black-eyed Susan, but I think the principle generalizes reasonably well.)

[Bob_B]

Thanks Chris.

[Rajan Parrikar]

The second version is beautiful.

[Farmer]

The second version is beautiful.

+1

[Bob_B]

Thank you Rajan and Phil!