How Do You Dew ....with re-edit

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
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How Do You Dew-3.jpg
How Do You Dew-3.jpg1364×2048 1.2 MB

Dewdrops redo-3
Dewdrops redo-31363×2048 1.24 MB

Critique Style Requested: In-depth

The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.

Self Critique

I always shoot a few images in front of and behind the areas I want to be in the final image. I did want to get the background flowers in the image and I’m pretty sure I like it right behind the sharp flowers, but I also wonder if it would have made the near flowers stand out better against the green instead. I tried to unsharpened and detexture the background even further in Lightroom, but it seemed to give it too plastic of a look, so I kept it the way it was straight out of Helicon. I also did a version where I removed the bud from the lower right corner, but I felt like it balances things to keep it there. Happy to hear any thoughts on how this image could be improved

Creative direction

I really wanted to showcase the beads around the edges of each petal. To me, cool mornings in the early summer are calming and refreshing and this is what I wanted to convey. This was a year ago but I can see this meadow of dewey flowers in my minds eye like it was yesterday.

Specific Feedback

Hit me with everything you’ve got! One thing I feel like I constantly struggle with is knowing how many images to take, what “step” to set my camera too, and what aperture to use. I’d love to hear any macro stacking advice from those of you who indulge.

Technical Details

Nikon D850
Sigma 105 mm Macro
ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80th second

I used 66 images in Helicon Focus for this stack. I used option C which is better for scenes where there was some movement because the order of images doesn’t matter. I retouched a few areas that had some halos, but there are still a few spots left that were tough to remove.

I used several masks one on the flowers, one for the background. I used Topaz Sharpen on “too soft, very blurry” as it seemed to offer the most realistic output. I used the “Point Color” tool to brighten and slightly saturate the greens and yellows in the background.

Description

Good morning! How do you dew?

On this morning last year, I wandered through the woods in search of just such a setting. Cool morning air is less able to hold its humidity. As objects cool, water vapor in the air transfers to them by the process of condensation. In this case, it formed these incredibly beautiful beads of water on the petals of these Shooting Star flowers. My legs were soaked from knee to toes after wandering around. These flowers were more in the shade when I first found them, so I explored some more and came back when the sun, while not directly on them, offered better lighting.

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Funny, Paul. I just got back from a couple of sunrise hours on a prairie preserve lying on the ground to photograph flowers. This is a lovely composition and I think there’s sufficient blur on the background flowers that having them behind the foreground works fine. The only jarring note I see is the horizontal bud sticking out from behind the right hand flower. It has enough contrast to pull my eye away from the flowers and it points to the edge of the frame.

1 Like
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Hope you got some great shots! Laying on the ground is my favorite perspective for flowers! I see what you’re saying now that you pointed it out. Funny how things can elude observation when you’re paying more attention elsewhere! I’ll post my attempt at a re-edit at the top!

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Excellent job on the re-edit, Paul. You’d never know it was there.

5

Really great color combination here and the new version simplifies things nicely. It just borders on too much in the frame, but with the removal of those two dark buds, it feels more open and concentrates the eye more on the main flowers. Soft light works well with the subtle colors and the dew. The far flowers could be slightly more blurred, but that’s a tough call. Ditto with having the bud in the LRC. On the fence there. The stack looks good, I didn’t see any goofs or artifacts. Not a lot of overlapping tiny stuff, so that helps. It feels refreshing to me, but also makes me think of rejuvenation and rest; mostly that has to do with the orientation of the flowers.

Oh the stackers dilemma - how much is enough and how slim does each slice need to be? I think a lot has to do with the lens you’re using in terms of the step distance and of course the aperture. Longer lenses compress more, but have shallower DOF so they probably cancel each other out. At mid-point in the aperture range is your sharpest place, so sticking there and painting in the background of your choice is probably the best way to go. Good habit to take more in front of and behind your main subject. Far better to have shots you don’t need than need shots you don’t have.

2 Likes
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Paul, this is a beautiful look at these dew covered Shootingstars. The pastel colors in both the flowers and the background work together to give an overall gentle/delicate feeling. The dew adds a nice touch of drama. I know well the challenge of stacking specular highlights, like the dew drops, using the Helicon C method, so I’m sympathetic to how much “clean up” the had to be. Removing the two darker bits makes the viewing “cleaner”. An alternative, particularly for the dark bud on the right would be some darks dodging so it blends more with the flower behind…maybe a bit less processing…maybe not.
If you Helicon’s later versions, this might also be a case where you could usse the A and then the C methods. The use the A method background (usually a bit softer) with the C method (cleaned up specular highlights) for the final result. Be careful using Unsharp masks, since large radius, small amounts masks are the definition of what Adobe calls Clarity (universally known as micro contrast inhancement). In terms of settings, it boils down to choosing between how soft you want the background and the need for overlapping sharp areas. It’s a fundamental limit of optical physics, that if you don’t get overlapping bits sharp in a single exposure, you’ll have a soft fringe in the final stack. One trick (that sometimes works) for handling the background is to retake the final sharp slice at a wider aperature and use that for the background in the stack.

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Just catching up here – gorgeous image of a flower that is not easy to shoot. You took advantage of lovely light and the composition with the OOF BG flowers is wonderful! The detail is fantastic and I don’t see any flaws – not easy to accomplish. The RP took it from a 9/10 to an 11/10.

Balancing aperture with the distance of steps between shots is easy – just use ESP. :upside_down_face:

I try to use the smallest aperture I can to get a reasonably soft BG, knowing I can soften it further in PS if I get the subject sharp enough to get a good selection.

There are 2 “models” in Zerene and I will usually stack both in PS and mask to the best of each, but sometimes one is just totally better and I just retouch it. No idea why that varies.

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Paul: Exceptionally good work on the original and the repost is even better. Kudos to you for your persistence and I love the POV. :+1: :+1:>=))>