A friend gave me some Canna bulbs but they must miss her garden because they are pouting. They did finally grow a few leaves and this one caught my eye unfurling.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Canon R5, 100-500 + 1.4 at 420. f/10, 1/40 sec, ISO 1250, very early morning light in the shade of the house. I did a stack of 40 but decided to only use about the first 20 (in Zerene Stacker) as there were water spots on the leaves, and the new leaf stood out better with a softer BG. I liked the color but decided to explore tonal separation with B/W, and I much preferred that version. Basically full frame, slight crop from the bottom. Some low-opacity cloning to simplify the BG.
Kudos on deciding to go with a version using 20 images instead of 40 to separate out your main subject from the rest of the scene. And, hey, who doesn’t love a good macro shot in the shade of their own home? I’ll take that any day of the week! This is a really cool scene. Simple, but strong composition. The necessary details are very sharp. Tonal contrasts are up to the artist, but I’d recommend trying even more to separate shadows and highlights and possibly doing some dodging and burning to separate the main part of the flower from the leaf in the back. I’m a sucker for adding vignettes to bring the eye to the subject as well. Really cool scene!
This is beautifully dynamic to my eye, Diane. The furled leaf is like a cat about to spring. I’d agree with @David_Johnston’s suggestions for tonal separation (and also that this is up to the artist!).
Thanks guys! I did work tonal separation a lot, with the B/W adj layer and the underlying luminance/contast/hue to get good separation and finally hit this middle ground, to leave some detail in the lights. Then I added a curves on top of that. Could have another look. The original was very low contrast except for the tip of the new leaf, which was bright and saturated. @David_Johnston, I did a vignette (as I often do) – is it too obvious, or not enough?
Oooh what a cool find. The furling is so nice. Reminds me of some shots of Canada Mayflower that I got of just the leaves. Going with black and white is interesting - I have no idea how much color this plant has, but the monochrome makes it ethereal somehow - probably because of the low presence of black and darker shades. Looks like you chose the best of the group for your stack.
