The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It’s been a slow spring (cool and wet) for wildflowers in Montana. Flowers that I expected to be bloomin weeks ago are just showing up now. This is a Fairy Slipper Orchid. They grow in damper regions of heavy forest, so getting this one catching a shaft of sun was a nice find.
Specific Feedback
I didn’t notice how colorful the background was until I started processing, but find in adding nicely to the scene.
Technical Details
R5, 180 mm macro, 1/80 s, f/8, iso 800, tripod, 30 shot stack.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Beautiful flower in a perfect POF to get this fine detail. I’m a little unsure of the BG - perhaps blur it a bit or at least soften the 2 reddish areas on the LR. They pull my eye too much from this perfect bloom.
Beautiful job on the bloom, Mark. I do find the background a bit too gaudy, particularly that slightly bluish green color just feels unreal in this setting. These may be accurate colors, but I think I’d tone them down to keep the attention on the flower.
Great job on this flower, Mark. I try to shoot these each spring and find it difficult to isolate the blooms since they grow so low to the ground and are often crowded with grasses and other vegetation. I suppose that’s true of many flowers, but I seem to struggle with these. In any case, this is a beautiful one. I do agree with Sandy’s and Dennis’s comments about the background. It may be worth experimenting with their suggestions.
Very nice look at the orchid. The colors really pop and the detail is good. The kaleidoscope background is interesting, but would tend to agree with the previous comments.
Beautiful flower! I’ve been out looking for them too. They are definitely slow to appear this year! Since stacking tends to add contrast, I have been experimenting with reducing contrast in the images that I import into the software to stack. I think that would help maintain the wonderful and varied colors in your background, but help keep them from being too distracting.
Hi @Paul_Holdorf , in my experience only the Helicon C method adds much contrast. This was a low contrast shot, so I added mid-tone contrast for more separation between the flower and the background and then reduced the saturation (maybe not enough) to compensate for Adobe software adding saturation as colors are darkened.
