The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
In preparation for photographing a mantis on this flower, I took a stack of the flower alone. I liked the result, so I thought I’d post it in Flora.
Specific Feedback
Does lopping off the petals to showcase the center of the flower work?
Technical Details
Sony A7Rv, FE 70-200 f/4 macro @ 174 mm, 34 image stack in Helicon Focus (camera was set for 70, but I only used 34), tripod, f/11, 1/100, iso 1600. Processed in PS & LR CC. Cropped to 4708x3610. Assorted adjustments to luminosity and saturation with a minor boost to microcontrast to emphasize the structure. Taken yesterday at 12:49 p.m.
Critique Template
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Dennis: I love coneflowers and you have such a good subject here in really good light. Terrific detail throughout and a wonderful color palette. Most excellent. >=))>
PS: I’m still a stacking neophyte so this is a question regarding getting best results. Do you find it better to take lots of source images at relatively open aperture or fewer with greater DOF? Since I have to change focus manually I tend to use f8 or f11. Of course here you used f11 and took 34 shots.
@Bill_Fach I’m still a neophyte at the automatic stuff myself, Bill. I tend to do it the way I did manually except it’s difficult to tell where the end point should be in terms of number of shots and the gap between shots on the camera isn’t well defined. Hopefully their software takes into account f-stop and focal length in the calculation of how far to move each time. Trial and error led me to 70 frames for the subjects I’ve been shooting and I’ve stuck mostly with f/8 to f/11, though sometimes I get crazy (or forgetful). It’s pretty easy to just not use anything beyond the back end of your subject as I did in this case. The stack I did of the flower with the mantis on top (not posted yet), it was just warming up and it made a major movement about the time of the second frame. Luckily, I’d started at the front of the flower on that series, so I was able to just omit the first few and settle for some slightly soft foreground petals.
Eliminating the petals is ok by me. The center of the flower is very interesting and you’ve got a ton of detail and the differences in the little structures is very cool. I might tease up the luminosity in the yellows a tad just to break them free in the mass of similar details. Maybe something similar with the greens. Really excellent stack, too. I didn’t see any weirdness. The blemished little bit is an interesting counterpoint to all that regularity.
