Leading lady

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

Kristen_SmithJune 08, 2023P1127049-Edit-Edit.jpg
Kristen_SmithJune 08, 2023P1127049-Edit-Edit.jpg1500×2000 1.38 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Recently I was alerted to where some Pink Lady’s Slipper is growing and luckily it has been pretty dry because it’s in a bog! The light was a little tough to work with, but I tamed it and really like how this came out. Part of what I love in woodland settings is the variable light - dappled light and especially backlight. Yeah, I always have to make something that’s hard to begin with even worse.

People think forests are hard to shoot in. Bah. That ain’t nothin’. Bogs are worse. They have the same uneven ground, random sticks and branches that have fallen off trees and lots of vegetation, but they are so much buggier and squashier so your shoes soak up water like sponges. But I love them so I showed up and found a few individual flowers that worked among a whole bunch that didn’t.

I was happy to know where these orchids grow because I haven’t seen many since moving to Wisconsin. Strangely enough when my friend and I were at another location, a person stopped to chat and then asked if we could keep a secret. Of course we could and he told us that down a deer trail just by where we were, Pink Lady’s Slippers were growing. If I hadn’t already shot them that day and wasn’t maddened by mosquitoes, I probably would have been down there like a shot. Maybe next time. If I can find the game trail!

Specific Feedback

I did go a little distraction removal crazy and hope I got the balance right. This shouldn’t seem too staged or managed. I did move a branch IRL, btw, so it is a bit staged and managed that way, too. I was trying for a balance of artistically appealing and easy to take in, but also indicative of what a bog is like and why these flowers might thrive there. Deliberately shot wide open to maximize the OOF areas and didn’t do any blurring in post.

Technical Details

Tripod & CPL

image

Lr for the basics which was really to bring up the shadows and squash the highlights a bit. I hope they aren’t too flat - I brought them up twice after I thought I was “done” with this shot. Kept the vibrance deliberately higher than I usually do and then to Topaz Sharpen AI to combat a little movement in the flower due to wind. Photoshop to do distraction removal and a few other things to further manage the light and color balance. Back in Lr I cropped a little and that made a few more distractions evident so they got removed.

1 Like
2

Kris, this is a great look at this lady slipper. It is catching the light well. Using the shaded tree to frame it sets it off even more. You’ve also got lots of detail nearby, with the tiny white flowers adding interest in the highlighted area.

3

@Mark_Seaver - thanks for chiming in and giving me some insight. I had my doubts about the tree, but I liked it and thought it would be a nice way to expand the story of the environment. I think the white guys are Starflowers - just about gone by.

4

Gorgeous capture, with the regal lady presiding over her tiny courtiers! After the flower, what I love most is the painterly OOF BG in the upper half. I could see a crop of that part, minus the trunk in that case. But the trunk works in the whole frame because it is grounded at the bottom.

5

Thanks @Diane_Miller - she does seem rather regal, doesn’t she? Luckily for me this lens is really sharp even wide open and it makes it easy to get backgrounds like this. I thought about cropping more, but didn’t like it so tight since it eliminated a lot of the light I took such pains over. The tree works for me, too, because it’s on the same plane as the bottom of the flower and it sort of gives her a stage or a backdrop.