They’re blooming now and I can’t stay away from them. But not easy to find a cloudy day with no wind, so I can stack focus. Not easy to find a decent composition, either, but this one will do. This was shot three days ago and I’m heading back to these three in the morning.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon R5, Canon 100mm Macro at f/4, ISO 200, 1/400, tripod, stack of maybe 20. I LOVE focus peaking so I can see where the focus is hitting as I carefully tweak the focus ring. Minimal adjustments in LR then into Zerene Stacker. Slight BG work in PS with partial opacity cloning. Almost full frame – slight crop from the left.
Diane; this image has such a soft, gentle feeling of spring being right round the corner. You have clearly mastered the art of stacking very nicely. Beautifully done. The OOF background sets off the buds very nicely. Lovely photo.
It’s very beautiful and the stacking so well executed - I’d get rid of the bg branches between the left and centre flower. But, a lovely early Spring shot.
Marvelous shot full of spring pleasure! I like the high-key, soft-light image very much. The tone of the BG is nicely matching with the lovely purple buds. The blurred branch between the buds might separate the left and right buds, but I’m not sure. I’m looking forward to seeing the next shot when the buds will come out.
Diane: When I switched to my first DSLR with an EVF after years of optical viewfinders I really had low expectations. It took me about 10 minutes with the new finder and all its features to say, “Oh never mind!” One of the most useful features is the focus peaking which actually is a big aid to single capture manual focus guys like me. This is a striking image with the buds against the high key BG. I see Mike’s point about the OOF branch between the first two buds and could see making it go away but this works very nicely for me as is. Superbly crafted image. >=))>
My favorite placement of the flower buds, background and placement in the frame. Simply elegant with an Asian flare. Would make a wonderful print. For me the moss is a big plus.
I tried to delete the branch between the buds, and found the removal made too much negative space and didn’t work well. The branch works as a good frame for the left bud. What do you think of making it a little subdued?
Thanks everyone! I went back yesterday and the buds look about the same but they have shed the outer coverings. (What are they called?) I shot them from a slightly different angle but subtle air movement is going to need a little cloning. I’ll post it asap.
@Nao_Koju, @Bill_Fach and @Mike_Friel, I did subdue the BG branches a lot with partial opacity cloning. I’m a little conflicted about the tangent brushing against the bud and might subdue that part further but I absolutely love that branch! It is dancing with the buds! I only wish I had been about an inch to my right. The next cloudy no-wind chance will be Monday and I’ll try again.
Like everything about this. Lovely arrangement and the lighter background works nicely. There’s also possibly an nice complementary color harmony between the magentas in the flowers and the subtle greens elsewhere in the scene.
