Glowing leaf

Cropping this image has been a challenge. This is the crop I probably like the best:

In the forest, found some dapple light rays hitting this leaf just right, setting parts of it aglow. I made sure to orient the photo to get a dark background, and took this snap. Cropping it right has been a fun puzzle.

Here’s the original image, uncropped:

It’s okay, but I’m not sure I love the balance. There’s too much distraction, to the extent that it distracts rather than complements the leaf.

Here’s a crop that focuses on the leaf and a little bit of the background:

I think this is better. However, the first image in this post shows the texture of the dark part of the leaf to contrast with the glowing part, at the expense of dropping the larger chunk of brightness in the leaf.

Here’s another crop that dispenses with the background bokeh:

What technical feedback would you like if any?

All

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

All

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.

Gaurav, I believe the vertical crop is your best here because it removes the distractions on the sides. It is quite dark on my screen though, so I’m having some trouble seeing the details. Is it one shot, and different crops done in the computer? Or a variation of shots? What were your settings?

It may be a screen issue (or maybe I really like dark snaps :slight_smile: ).

They are all the same shot, cropped differently. The settings are 1/60 s, 70 mm (crop), f/10, ISO 200.

The reason I’m conflicted is that in some ways, showing the background places the leaf in context, and plays off it. Obviously, I’m not certain that that helps, which is why I’m grateful for your input!

Gaurav, the vertical works best as it’s focuses interest on the leaf and its glowing parts. I’m not sure what your close focusing capability was, but I think taking this as a vertical would have maximized the image quality. It’s and intriguing, artistic look at this leaf. Moving so that the leaf was in front of the green background would make a very different photo, that might also be interesting.

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