Candy Cane

[Diane_Miller]

And a version with more BG cleanup – I think it’s an improvement!

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

At least that’s what it reminds me of. From the botanical garden last month. Another one where the breeze was just coming up as fog/low clouds cleared, and I got a lucky split second the air was still enough to get a focus stack at 20 fps.

Specific Feedback

All comments welcome! I find it very difficult to get a little interest in the BGs here – it’s usually too much distraction or too blah.

Technical Details

Minor tonal tweaks in LR then into Zerene Stacker, probably about 15 frames. Minor BG tweaking of the resulting file.

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[SandyR-B (Sandy Richards-Brown)]

Another gorgeous lily ! It DOES look like a candy cane…
Your usual fine detail and colours.
Seems a little tight at the top to me.
I have mixed feelings about the OOF second lily - maybe it’s just a bit bright for my personal taste, but it detracts a little for me. Maybe consider getting rid of the dull stamens and stuff around the right upper corner leaf ?

[Diane_Miller]

Thanks, @SandyR-B! I did darken the BG flower quite a lot, but could do more. Trying for an interesting BG here drives me nuts. There must be 100 blooms on this one stand of these lilies. I could pick off the stamens – will give it a try. Could also add a little room on top, although that’s the top of the original frame. When I shot it I was thinking I would crop from the right, where there was a lot of distracting stuff, but I’m getting bored with the long stems of these things just exiting the frame. Will play with it later when I get a few minutes.

[Dennis_Plank]

Another beautiful lily image, Diane. Rather than try to describe locations, I marked up a copy of your image:

1: The light colored stamens in the background bloom tend to attract my attention.

2: The little clump of darker anthers are just a tiny bit distracting-I like the more faded ones.

3: The out of focus leaf is pretty bright.

Just minor nits, but I know what a perfectionist you are. The brightness of the background flower seems about right to me.

[Diane_Miller]

Thanks, @Dennis_Plank! Those busy areas were bothering me, too, but for some reason I was reluctant to do much BG cleanup. (Did I just say that?)

A new version is added above – and thanks to @SandyR-B for the thought to add a little more to the top. I do like it better!

[Dennis_Plank]

Gorgeous, Diane. Your edits did a great job of fixing this up.

[SandyR-B (Sandy Richards-Brown)]

@Diane_Miller
From great to excellent, with the edit !

[Diane_Miller]

Thanks again, @Dennis_Plank and @SandyR-B!