When I looked in the garden this morning, this was the first flower to have opened on the plant. I couldn’t let it just sit there unrecorded, as I liked its shape and colours so much.
Specific Feedback Requested
I went overboard a bit with the vignette, as an experiment. Using f25, to make stacking simpler, meant that the background came out as too prominent, especially with the flower sitting among the leaves. I tried blurring the background but that didn’t look pleasing. Any comments welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
D500 + 105mm micro, 1/250 f25 ISO800 with diffused Speedlight flash, on a tripod. Seven shots stacked in Affinity Photo.
@Kris_Smith: short answer: someone on this site with much more experience than me recommended this. Longer answer, from Googling this question: an intermediate aperture, it seems, is optimal in most situations (sweet spot?). Open up for smoother backgrounds at the cost of more shots, and close down for fewer shots in the stack. At my learning stage, I wanted fewer shots in the stack/to simplify rotating the focus ring., Using a focus rail might be easier, but that’s something for the future. All this said, I’m sure there are some people here with professional knowledge way beyond this and they may chime in!
Beautiful image Mike. Sharp and detailed, with gorgeous coloring. And I think the vignette worked. I like that the background leaves are just barely visible around the edges of the flower - I think that makes an interesting effect. Well done.
I prefer the original presentation. There is enough green to let the viewer use their imagination to fill in the rest of the leaves without them actually being there. The detail in the clematis is amazing.
