What Makes A Picture Flat?

[shp]

I wasn't sure where to post this.

Upon seeing the reviews upon my pictures I read that both my pictures seem flat, and yes, this is a relatively new term to me, XP, but I would like to know what makes a picture flat so that I cav avoid it in the future.

[Saknika]

A flat photo means it has no contrast and definition. If you light something head on, usually there are no shadows, and only highlights. Or from behind, and vise-versa. Basically though, if there isn't enough contrast and a range of tones between pure black and pure white in an image, then it's flat.

Here's what I mean. The first image is flat (I made it that way), and the second image is what it is supposed to look like. The image wasn't originally flat, but I screwed with it real quick to show you what I mean.

[shp]

Hmm, I can see the difference in those two pictures. I'm still learning more about lighting, to be honest, and the only blue thing I had in my house was an armchair, hence why the roses were so close to the "background". I also had a lamp right by the camera when I took those pictures but my camera refused not to flash.

So, let's use my roses for example in this question (since it did start the earlier one), by moving the roses away from the background and adjusting the lighting more to give it more contrast, I could've had better results, right? I was planning to get some blue fabric, but I think I would probably switch to a red and green theme (I have a bush outside and it's good enough to serve as a background).

My programs (Ulead and Corel) does lighting, but I think Corel's worse off because it just makes everything brighter and not the subject.

[Saknika]

Your big problem right now, is that last sentence. Lighting in a program is not a good idea. That's more photomanipulation, not photography. And normally, it never works and just looks bad.

Learning how to light an image before photographing is part of the art of it all. It takes trial and error, or classes if you can find them. And there are plenty of tutorials out there on the internet that will help you learn.

[shp]

Yeah, I found a few books and two of them talk about lighting so I started reading one. So, I guess the first step of improvement for me would be to work on lighting. I have an idea for a point for a self-portrait photo shoot, so I will use that to practice the lighting.