(If the background has been replaced, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Canon 5D4, Canon 100mm macro, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/320, tripod. Focus stack compiled in ZereneStacker. There had been a light breeze and I wasn’t expecting to be able to stack but a brief lull gave me a chance. I opened up to f/2.8 to minimize the BG detail. It’s not exactly a garden, but a large area that had been hydroseeded for erosion control with a mix including lupine, clover and California poppy, so it was a target-rich environment. Early light just grazing a hillside. I did quite a bit of partial-opacity cloning on the BG.
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Beautiful image. Selective stacking works well for the dominant leaf. I can see the challenge in composing this image. Lupine leaves are beautiful especially with dew but compositionally challenging. Green on green looks good with dew creating the contrast. well made image. The only suggestion I have (may be for next time) - I would liked to see all parts of the dominant leaf in focus.
Thanks guys – I also wish I had taken the stack a little further. f/2.8 is thin ice. (I’ll be working these next spring.) After posting I decided there was a better crop. When I shot it I had initially liked the very OOF leaf on the right but it has about disappeared in the BG work. The left side now feels very crowded so I added more canvas with content aware fill and cropped from the right. I like it better this way.
Thanks, Patricia! I had originally been trying to capture an OOF BG leaf on the right that I felt echoed the main leaf, but it didn’t fare well in the stacking. I went back and put it in from the last frame in the stack. Now I’m not sure it is contributing anything. Time to move on till next spring…
Diane: I really like your rework; a very nice improvement. I edited your title to reflect the repost. It’s always good to edit the title so that others will know to revisit the image. I’m enjoying your work. >=))>
