I’ve been taking photos like this for a long time so when I saw Anne Belmont’s article about her newfound appreciation for the desiccated and withered, it was like I wasn’t alone out there. Sometimes beauty can be found in things past their prime, so to speak. And as we all age, I think we can all come to appreciate being appreciated.
I have no idea what these flowers are, but since they’re in the front yard in the woods I’ll just check on them from time to time to see when they are fresh for an ID.
Specific Feedback Requested
Is there enough DOF to make this interesting? Maybe I should have used more images to stack, but I’m really new to it so I erred on the side of caution. Is the green too weird? It’s some evergreen fern I believe and I thought it added a little variation to the scene.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: Yes
Lumix G9
Leica DG 45mm f2.8 macro
f/8 | 1/15 sec | ISO 200
Tripod
Image stack - I think it’s just two - part of my experimental phase
Lr to process for exposure, clarity & texture. I don’t think it’s cropped much. A bit of sharpening & NR then to Zerene for a quick stack.
Kristen, I love the delicate beauty of this. The wisps of white hair thingies are so pretty.
Since you asked, I do think the green in LLC could be replaced with the same tan tone that is everywhere else in the background. But the subject is what drew my eye in the first place, and I wasn’t distracted by the green.
A beauty.
Kris, I too thoroughly enjoy “dried vegetation” in it’s winter forms, with seed heads like this being a favorite subject. The ethereal nature of the hairs stands out here, while there’s a nice touch of warmth from the browns. While the green is different, it’s not distracting. You might have been able to eliminate it by shooting from a slightly lower position (depending, of course, on what’s behind…). I do see stacking artifacts in the largest view around a number of the hairs. These are very common when you have very fine detail and/or high contrast at a particular location. Different stacking software is better or worse at handling this situation. Which software are you using?
I’m using Zerene and am a total noob. If I’d noticed the artifacts I think I could eliminate them in Ps, right? Using Zerene itself to do this is a bit awkward as I recall.
Kris, what a great find and capture. I’m okay with the green in the LLC, but it might would have been a better shot without it since it is near the edge of the image. I haven’t not attempted to use stacking yet, some I am not even a newby at it, so not able to help you with that. I compliment you on trying and learning the stacking. You all are challenging me now to go see if there is anything dead in the plant world around my house some place. I got rid of all of it out of our flower bed a few weeks ago. Nice shot. Oh, and I think the DOF is good too, to answer your question.
@Kris_Smith, There’s a ton of “clean up” here because there are either dark or light shadows around many of the spines and some of the edges. Yes, you can do it in PS, but it’s much easier if you can clone specific parts of an individual image onto the stacked result in your stacking program. I do that routinely in Helicon Focus, but don’t know if Zerene offers a similar option. On further looking, it also looks like there may be two leaf edges (pointing to the right) that look “doubled”, which happens if there’s motion (camera or subject) during stack acquisition (motion artifacts can also be fixed in the stacking program, but are much harder to fix in PS).
