The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
OMG! Spring is really here. Nothing like making an entrance. While walking back from the other garage I noticed some hepatica blooming and then, like magic, I saw them everywhere. Tiny flowers braving the cool overnight temps to offer their nectar and pollen to tiny bees and other pollinators like the mining bees I saw elsewhere yesterday. I was so excited I just went inside to get the macro. No tripod, no Platypod, no flash, just me and the forest floor. There will be time for elaborate set ups, but today wasn’t the day. Near 70 and sunny, I was perfectly happy to delay my Sam Adams for a little while.
Specific Feedback
General impressions, thoughts on processing and ideas for next time. After it snows and rains for a few days.
Technical Details
Handheld with my hand and the camera on the ground
Lr for a crop to square and a horizontal flip. Used masking to select the flower and add some texture, clarity and sharpening. Used an inverted radial mask to position a slight vignette. Added a little exposure and lowered the shadows a bit.
Snow one day and then spring! With a gorgeous arrival! I love the detail you captured. The OOF elements add a nice support but I wonder about minimizing the darker brown elements, which look like a structure of some sort. I’m on the road with my iPhone (we travel light in this operation) but a screen expand looked great as a possible tighter crop. (Trip details to follow…)
Sometimes it pays to get down and dirty with minimum gear for a clean shot like this.
The exposure is close the edge but not over it, there’s still plenty of texture there and I especially like the shadows of the filament and anthers on the petal.
The hairs are nice and sharp and I can imagine them moving around in a gentle breeze.
I like the composition as presented, the angle of the stem and flower is natural feeling and the BG is very pleasing and complimentary IMHO.
I also especially like the sharp focus on the FG petal, then transitioning to a soft focus at the back of the flower, I just like it that way on some flowers and that includes this one. Some flowers almost demand sharp focus all the way through but not so here.
I even like the OOF FG in the LLC, somehow the flower stem is magically emerging from the OOF area in a natural way. It’s as if it had been hiding behind a curtain and decided to pop out say and hey, here I am!
Thanks @David_Bostock, @Diane_Miller & @Merv - I’m always amazed and somewhat dismayed at how late spring actually takes to arrive up this way. This year we had a crap ton of snow later in the season and so it just took forever. Today is overcast, raining and in the 40s, but at least it’s not snowing. I went out to a local brook and saw a few hepatica there, too. It will come like a landslide now, but oh, it’s short. October will bring snow again.
That OOF leaf was higher and blocking more of the flower, so I moved it slightly. I don’t mind getting down in the leaf litter at all. Well, except for ticks, but usually they are on taller brush and grass rather than right in the leaves. All was good after this outing.
Oh and I’m glad you noticed and liked the shadows, @Merv - that was one of the things that made me want to take this photo - a tiny bit of backlight!
