After readding the article on Plant photography on the network, I decided to give it another try. It was cloudy and I know that is the best time to photograph plants and flowers.
Composition feedback is welcome. I can always back to this subject because it is easy to find
R6m2 rf 100 macro f/2.8 1/250 f/5.6 ISO 400 15 images stacked using Zerene PMAX this time. On a tripod.
Dean, I like it just the way it is, but some of the stacking gurus may have some thoughts to add. For me the composition works nicely, filling the frame almost completely with the subject. I don’t know if you have a grouping of cactus that would have made even better a BG than some of the stones/dirt and only one oof cactus. Anxious to see what others have to say as I have never tried to capture a shot like this one.
Looks great to me, Dean. Love the detail in the cactus and the colors are wonderful. I am still trying to get the stacking thing to work for me, so kudos to you! Nicely done.
Dean, a very fine composition and or portraiture if you will of this cactus dome. I see many of these barrel cactus on my outings and this one is in excellent shape… 
Dean, this is wonderful. I like how you stacked such that the background remains out of focus. Just the plant in focus. I think this works quite well. The only distraction is the lines in the upper left, presumably from another cactus? I wonder if those could be cloned out. That’s a minor nit though. I really like this. Well done.
Thank you for the feedback, everyone. I am using the Focus Stacking feature in the camera which makes it a lot easier these days. I tend to go beyond the point I want to stop. For example, this series had 30 frames because I never really know yet how many I really need. I did spend some time putting the camera exactly where I wanted.
Dean, the stack looks great. You’ve got fine details through the subject cacti. You can burn -in the oof spines in the upper left to minimize how much attention they draw.
Thanks @Mark_Seaver. I was going to burn in the brighter OOF in the upper left area. Instead, I removed them using Photoshop. I did a select subject which did ok but not good enough. Then used Select and Mask to get the rest of the selection. Finally inverted the mask and used the clone and healing brush to get rid of them I also darken just a bit the lower left corner.
Dean, I was quite content with the cactus in the BG, but others seemed to not, and now that you have fixed it where the cactus isn’t as in focus, it really improved the shot. I really like your repost. Nicely done.
