I took this photo in early afternoon, just before the flower closed completely. I played with an off camera flash to illuminate the flower. This is the angle of light that I liked the most. I’ve seen many photos of this flower with the pedals wide opened with the golden pistil showing. I prefer the flower partially closed, when the iridescent white tends to glow.
There was some exposure in the background that I cloned out. I brightened the bottom leaf and darkened the gold veins in the upper leaf. I also brightened the shadowed part of the stem.
I hadn’t started focus stacking, so this is one exposure.
If you aren’t familiar with the Bloodroot, it is an early spring wildflower. It keeps it’s pedals until pollinated, which can be as little as a day. The flower in this photo lost it’s petals overnight.
Specific Feedback Requested
I welcome all CC for this photo. I don’t have any specific questions.
Technical Details
Canon 5DIV, EF100 Macro Lens | f32 | 1/125s | ISO 100 | 100mm
Processed using ACR and Photoshop
I didn’t have any problems with diffraction with this image. My biggest challenge was post processing as I was just learning how to use Photoshop. I would work on it. Set it aside. Learn something new about Photoshop and work on it some more. It took me a while to learn how to mask so that changes weren’t global. I just noticed that the photo I posted has a couple of lighter green areas in the lower leaf. Not sure what happened, but it’s fixed now.
I still have a lot to learn about Photoshop and PP in general. I have gone through several online classes/tutorials, a couple of times (each). Watching and executing what is shown on my own work can be very different. I need to get out and start shooting again though. Haven’t taken many photos since last fall.
David, I very much like this. The variation of tones from bright to dark and the texture makes this a very interesting image. the diagonal presentation makes it very effective.
I do like this David. Flowers with a black background are certainly striking, especially white flowers that have plenty of texture like this. The feature that makes the image for me is the veined leaf (gold ), although the part of a leaf that is on the edge of the image at the foreground corner may be a bit distracting because I the texture is much less obvious. Cheers.
), although the part of a leaf that is on the edge of the image at the foreground corner may be a bit distracting because I the texture is much less obvious. Cheers.