The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is from January when I had recently purchased a set of extension tubes and needed to try them out. Macro in winter is sometimes a bit difficult, but lichen is wonderful all the time and so here we are. The snow makes for a natural reflector and so I have plenty of light on this wee cluster of lichen. It’s just about 1 cm across or maybe a bit more, but it’s definitely very small. Found on one of the many twigs and branches that fall during the winter storms.
The orange yellow parts are probably Gallowayella hasseana, poplar sunburst lichen and the pale green foliose and brownish cups are probably Physcia stellaris, star rosette lichen. These are both very common and I love to photograph them because they’re so striking and kind of cute.
Specific Feedback
No specific feedback needed here. It’s just an experiment to see what a 10mm tube did on the 45mm f/2.8 macro. This slightly cropped and rotated to eliminate some distractions, but it’s definitely closer than the lens’s native 1:1 ratio for its nearest focus range. I will have to keep experimenting and maybe, just maybe, I won’t succumb to the new 100mm macro OM Systems just dropped.
Technical Details
Platypod or tripod, I can’t remember, probably Platypod
11-images taken with the 0/+ bracketing method
Initial work to boost colors, texture and overall tonalities in Lr. Applied those across the others and exported to Zerene. This is the 2nd DMap image I made since the first had too much goopiness. I think I used around 70-80% restriction in the contrast threshold setting to get this much cleaner version. It still held enough detail that I didn’t retouch at all with the PMax image.
Because there was some haloing with OOF elements I didn’t like, I brought this into Photoshop to correct those using a Lighter Color layer with some clone stamping. Also did a little dodging and burning with luminosity masks for control.
A very enjoyable image, Kris. I love the orange yellows. The different sizes and stages I guess makes this interesting too. That sounds awfully small! Is that spider web that I am seeing? Great job with your new extension tubes.
Wonderful!!! Fascinating conglomeration of shapes and great color!! You found a group that let you frame them well. Stacking looks great and fades out into BG nicely! I’ve tried to photograph these or similar things and never got anything I really like.
Really Nice and very interesting subject. my only suggestion is maybe a slight vignette to darken the corners. Either way it works and the colors and texture are really sharp …
Great macro work, Kris and agree with all the positives above. I’d be tempted to clone out the oof yellow bit under the branch in the LLC as it pulled my eye a bit. Beautiful lichen.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman, @Diane_Miller, @Gill_Vanderlip, @Donna_Callais & @Mike_Friel - I appreciate your taking a look and leaving your thoughts. We just got a dumping of snow last night so more macro won’t be possible for a while, but I do have backlogs like this one. That bit on the bottom could go, I agree Mike.
Kris, you’ve got fine details in this small shroom. The clustered rings of color look great, especially the bright orange ones (that are presumably fresher than the darker ones). When you add extension tubes to a lens you gain magnification at roughly the ratio of the total length divided by the original focal length. In this case (45 + 10)/45 = 1.22, so you could get to 1.2 X if you started your stack at closest focus. The only time the extension tubes create an optical problem is is you push the magnification beyond the design limit of the lens, then you start to loose sharpness and may see color fringing. Back in the old days, Olympus would include the design specification with their macro lenses, so you’d know that their 1:1 lens would work well to 1.5:1. I don’t think they do that anymore.
I never could do math, Mark! Not sure how far I can push this one, but I didn’t really buy the tubes for it, but for my medium telephoto that is super sharp, but doesn’t focus very close. Not sure if it will be practical, but I have noodled with the idea long enough. I just had a look at the user manual for the lens and it doesn’t give any of that info unfortunately. I’ll use it again with the macro and see how far I can push it. It’s only 1s and 0s!
Oh and this is lichen - two different species growing together, that’s why the different colors. Just about the only macro-worthy subject with all this snow!
I missed this one, but will offer my critique. Color and high key present work very well in this lichen comp. In macro-photography, I’m not a fan limited DOF and stacking has increased the DOF to produce a very pleasing image. I would remove the light orange OOF lichen in the upper LFH corner as my only suggested edit for perfection. Other than that, I like what you presented…Jim
Somehow I missed this one too but I’m glad I scrolled down enough to discover it.
This is striking to me, the colors, the composition, details, sharpness, the stack, all of it looks top notch to me.
These lichen look like something I’d expect to see on a tropical coral reef but in clear water.
No nits from me. Looks great as presented!
I’m not surprised at how well this did with a 10mm extension tube, you could probably add another 10mm to it and still get good results (or maybe use a 16mm tube by itself if you have one, that would be 1.35:1).
I just ordered a set of tubes for my macro lens, (1:10mm and 1:16mm) just to see how it will do.
I’m almost finished with making a 200mm focusing rail so hopefully stacking is in my near future.
There’s lots of interesting things popping up in our local woods lately.
Oh and BTW, Thank you so much for Editor’s Pick of the Tulip Poplar - Tulip image! Greatly appreciated!
Not sure how far I can push this one, but I didn’t really buy the tubes for it, but for my medium telephoto that is super sharp, but doesn’t focus very close. Not sure if it will be practical, but I have noodled with the idea long enough. I just had a look at the user manual for the lens and it doesn’t give any of that info unfortunately. I’ll use it again with the macro and see how far I can push it. It’s only 1s and 0s!