A-blush

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

Kristen_SmithApril 28, 2023_1113782-Edit.jpg
Kristen_SmithApril 28, 2023_1113782-Edit.jpg1600Ă—2000 682 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Tiny hepatica blooming on the edge of the lawn. Most of them are pure white or a bluish purple, but this has a hint of pink in the center that reminds me of young anemone blossoms. Those will come later. For now we have these guys and bloodroot.

This one is not quite 2 inches high and had some other buds coming up, but the new leaves won’t be visible for a few weeks yet, so those are last year’s leaves on the bottom there. I love these for their hopefulness and tiny bits of cheer. They are important for emerging bee queens because they are responsible for regenerating the entire next generation. If they emerge from hibernation too early and there are no flowers present, they could quickly die as evidenced by a dead bumblebee I found on my walk the other day. So even though I have these and other wild beauties “invading” my lawn and garden, I welcome them.

Specific Feedback

Is the softness too much? The base of the flower isn’t lovely…better to crop out?

Technical Details

Handheld with the camera and hand touching the ground

image

Lr for basics - touch of exposure, a bit of a crop, wb adjustment and some distraction removal. Added some sharpening, but no texture or clarity since I wanted this soft.

1 Like
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Gorgeous and brave little flower! I like the other buds adding to the story.

The base isn’t bad, and cropping could give a bit of a stark result. Sometimes (in the rare occasions I think of it) I’ll shoot an even more OOF version to layer in and mask for the less attractive elements. Or maybe a normal focus stack would have worked here, to give more definition to the stuff at the base.

Sounds like you might have another chance…

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Thanks @Diane_Miller - yeah, it seems like they should be too delicate to survive, but the always do. Plenty more to play with so maybe a blend of a couple different aperture settings would harmonize things a bit. Hm.