It was windy so I had to speed it up a bit. I have trouble getting accurate focus in bright sunlight, so I stacked 7 frames to be sure. Even with a hood and Live View, I wasn’t sure. This seemed to work. Any help here would be appreciated.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 7D ll, Canon 85 1.8, 34mm Extension Tubes, Tripod, 2 sec delay. 1/400sec, F/11, ISO 800.
LR CC, PS Stacking.
All comments appreciated.
A great look at the Lantana, Charlie. I can’t tell that it was windy, nor that you stacked the image. Love that you even caught an ant nice and sharp. There is a portion of an insect up near the top that isn’t as sharp, and to me seems a bit distracting when in large view, so I am think if you can clone it out it might improve the image. I love the color variations. Nice.
Charlie, I think that helped. You did a great job too. I can’t tell there was ever an ant there. I do love the in focus ant, I think it adds to the image.
Charlie: This image is all about the main bloom and I think you have captured it well, especially with the lighting conditions you were working with. I tend to be a very aggressive cropper and for the most part try to fill most of the frame with the main subject. This may seem extreme to you but I think it puts all of the emphasis on the flower and eliminates the distractions in the BG. >=))>
Thanks. I must say that I went back and forth looking at the closer crop and just finally decided to get more of the background. I couldn’t decide if the buds down at the bottom would be distracting. Interested to see if I get more feedback on one or the other.
Charlie, the details in the flower stand out beautifully. The colors are quite amazing. I like the extra context from the surroundings that you include. I see some banding in the moderately sharp leaf on the left and the oof leaf on the right. Those are fairly typical stacking artifacts when there’s movement between frames or there’s a significant change in brightness between frames. In previous years, when I did stacks using Photoshop, I could always find subtle oof areas in the middle of sharp areas because of how PS uses masks to create the stacked image. Those subtleties don’t show at NPN resolution, but if you go to 100% viewing, I think you’ll see what I’m talking about (although PS might have fixed this problem by now).
Hi Charlie, I really like the lighting and tones in this image. Cloning out the partial ant helps I think. I like Bill’s version just fine but I prefer your original composition with the main bloom in upper right of frame and some other foliage giving context.
