The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
My favorite day lily continues to bud, bloom and shine. Every morning I go visit the garden it seems a new one has blossomed. Had really good light and wind conditions so I was able to do some stacking and get some tight shots of the center. >=))>
Specific Feedback
My intent was to only get sharp focus on the pistil and anthers. I have a number of single captures at higher DOF that got both in focus but then the BG was rendered more sharply. Does the shallow DOF work for you?
Technical Details
Sony A7rIII
Sony FE 70-200 f2.8 GM-II, 2xTC @ 400mm
ISO 400, 1/80 @ f8, 8 shot stack in Helicon Focus
Yes, Bill, the shallow DOF works for me and both pistil and anthers are really clearly caught so we can examine them in detail (as I have not done before). I do think that a piece of petal on the left edge is pretty much in focus too. So it pulls my eye over there as well, which may go against your intention. Might I suggest you crop 10% off the left if you agree?
I should come back over here more often. Don’t want to miss beauties like this, Bill. The shallow dof works great for me. I kinda got out of the habit of flora photography since my haunting grounds of Longwood Gardens started prohibiting tripods in the conservatories. Need to get back into it. I think Flora sounds better than Plant Life for a category.
Wonderful color and composition, Bill. I like a little bit of fall off in dof in flower pictures. It makes it easier to really focus on part of the flower. This one has such lovely colors and gestural pistils/anthers that it works beautifully.
Hi Bill,
I love the bold in your face color and the focus is right where it needs to be. It has to be a real treat to be able to step out the front door and enjoy these beauties.I have no suggestions; beautifully done IMO.
Bill, this image is glorious. It does not so much depict a flower as it does a small contained supernova. The pistil and anthers in the foreground hover like sunspots against that incandescent yellow and orange core, and the surrounding red petals glow with the intensity of stellar plasma curling outward at the edges of a star. The longer I look, the more I half expect a solar flare to leap up from the lower right and lick at the frame.
That central wash of yellow into chartreuse green is doing extraordinary work. It feels less like a pollen tube and more like the molten heart of the bloom, and the warm orange tones bleeding outward toward the deep red petals give the whole image the gradient of a coronal photograph. The dark stamens, with their slightly velvet finish, become the only solid forms in this otherwise radiant field, which is exactly what makes them so effective as focal anchors. They are the silhouettes you can identify in a sky otherwise made of pure light.
To your specific question, the shallow depth of field is absolutely the right choice here. A deeper plane would have rendered the petals crisply and turned the image into a portrait of a flower, which is fine but already done a thousand times. By letting the petals dissolve into soft strokes of color and saving the sharpness for the stamens, you have moved the picture from botanical description into something closer to an evocation of solar fire. The eye lands on the stamens and the surrounding glow becomes atmosphere rather than information. Trust the choice.
Bill, this is a great look into the heart of this day lily. The dof works very well at letting the stamen and pistil stand out against the very colorful “background”. I like the back and forth visual movement the the almost sharp left side adds.
Oh, this is really nice, Bill. You need some wall space for this one! I’m sort of back. Got a lot left to do but at least I can get online now and view/comment as time permits.
