The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Thursday morning, I went after a blue grosbeak and with windy, cloudy conditions the grosbeak sang once and did not show itself for a photo-op. I then decided to hike into a nice little prairie and managed to severely scratch the cornea of my right eye on a windblown stem of big blue stem grass. With excruciating pain, I trudged uphill lugging my 600mm f4 back to the car. The mile hike was brutal and drove 100 miles up to my ophthalmologist for some emergency treatment. With a contact lens bandage, the eye is much better although still somewhat blurry. So I spent the day at home working on some more stacks of wildflowers. Anise hyssop smells like licorice and is a common plant in my prairie area and herb garden. Goldfinches like the seeds.
Specific Feedback
This is a 150 image stack and found several artifact areas and did not have enough images for as purely sharp composite and had to manually sharpen the backward pointed leaf on the right side. How do you like the lighting. This is another lightbox naturally lit subject with fairly complex flowers.
Technical Details
Z9 60mm f2.8 Micro (1/8 sec at f3.0, ISO 160) 150 image stack PMax, edited several artifacts on leaves, Levels with black point set, sharpened, full frame, Brightness & Contrast…Jim
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Sorry about the eye, Jim. Hopefully it heals correctly and quickly.
This is a beautiful rendition of this plant. The detail is superb as is the composition.
Hummingbirds like them out here as well. We don’t have any this year, but long ago I got some fun shots of hummingbirds backing out with the petals stuck on their beak.
Oh no!
Hope your eye heals quickly. Mine are so sensitive, I can’t stand the tiniest speck of dust.
I hope this image partially makes up for the injury.
Not the tiniest nit here -every mm is tack-sharp, beautiful colour combinations, and set off perfectly with the black BG. I think it would work well as a vertical, as well.
Fine work!
Yes, get well again pronto, Jim. This shot shows that your vision is as acute as ever! The black BG really brings out the colors of the hyssop. In Korea, this plant grows very well in my area. Hummingbird hawkmoths love this one (no hummingbirds here!).Maybe this has something to do with the large number of flowers and their shape, though the nectar must be important too. Are they attracted by that strong perfume? Probably a combination. Anyway, a very good shot.
I’m really liking the black background. It shows the colours beautifully. The leaves are so wonderfully placed cradling the flower. 150 stack! Well and truly out of my league. The lighting is nice.
Hope youre eye recovers quickly. I was cutting back bougainvillea when a thorn pierced my eye. I felt a bit of a scratch but the funny thing was that I didn’t think the thorn had actually gone into my eye. It wasn’t until my daughter screamed at the blood running down my face that I realised what happened. Off to the eye doctor. Luckily all the important things in my eye were missed.
Jim, having scratched a cornea a couple of times, I’m totally sympathetic to your plight. Glad to hear that it’s improving with no long term consequences. Your stack looks great. The slightly soft far tip doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The details are outstanding. I’m impressed at how few “overlap” artifacts I can find in the large view. Is your software that good or are you removing them in post processing (as suggested by “edited several artifacts on leaves”)? Stacking software is great, but it can’t overcome the “laws of optics”…
Jim: I can tell you that being the doctor in cases of corneal abrasions is way more fun than being the patient. There are more pain receptors on the cornea than the tip of the fingers or tip of the nose. The good news is that the actual tissue damage is way out of proportion to the pain experienced and because of some unique healing characteristics you should be up an going in just a few days. Do ask your doctor about the probability of recurrent corneal erosion that can happen many months after the original injury.
As for the image, what a beautiful portrait it is. I commented on another high image stack from another member wondering if so many source images is overkill introducing some other challenges to the software. As a stacking neophyte with a camera system that does not auto-stack I find it hard to conceive of capturing so many images. You have obviously mastered the art and results like this are hard to challenge. Top notch result. >=))>
Thank you @glennie , @Mark_Seaver , @Bill_Fach , @Dennis_Plank , @Sandy_Richards-Brown , and @Mike_Friel for your kind words and critiques. @glennie , that eye injury that you suffered from was brutal. I’m glad that your eye healed up well and is evidenced by the wonderful photos you submit for critiques. @Bill_Fach , my ophthalmologist was amazed at the amount of healing that occured in 24 hours. My vision for my right eye is almost as good as new. @Dennis_Plank , I have not seen hummingbirds at these plants, but I’m sure they visit them before the bees get to them. @Mark_Seaver I believe quite a few of us get corneal abrasions while looking for subjects to photograph. Zerene does a fairly clean stack for PMax and there was several artifacts (double edge on one leaf, and one leaf was blended into another because there was not enough contrast to separate the two leaves). Once I find a method that produces consistent results, I stick with it. I’m finding that using larger apertures and stacking large numbers of shallow DOF images works the best. I guess more data produces better images…Jim
I missed this one before. I’m happy it scored an EP (very well deserved) which brought it back into view! It is gorgeous and I don’t see anything to mention or “wonder about” – top notch! The stack looks perfect. I see enough unexpected variability that I haven’t settled on a best method.
Thank you @Diane_Miller for your comments and critique ant to @NPN_Editor for the EP. Much appreciated and these have immensly increased the quality of my work…Jim
