Lupine flowers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, partly because they come in such a wide variety of colors, including blue, purple, and pink. But the leaves of the lupine plant also have an interesting star shape, which often catches dew or rain drops. However, in all my years of shooting lupines, I have never seen a specimen with as many rain drops as this one. I chose to convert it to B&W because I liked how it emphasized the white fringing on the edges of the leaves.
And if you look close in some of the drops, you will see my self portrait…
Specific Feedback Requested
any critique or comments are welcome
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 5D MK4, Canon 100mm Macro ISO 800, 1/5 sec at f16
Boy, Ed. This is just so beautiful. Nature’s symmetry is so fantastically portrayed with this composition. The lines converging to center, or expanding out (I’m not quite sure what my eye does!) are so beautiful. And the droplets seem perfectly placed. Congrats on seeing this and capturing this image.
Radial symmetry is alway attractive. It think it’s why we like diamonds, why we wear jewelry. The desert where I live half of the time has many plants with repeating patterns. The leaves of the agave is perhaps my favorite. I think b&w was a good choice here because it simplifies it to tones and emphasizes the repetition. Actually, color, when present, can add a lot to such an image.
Ed, I really am enjoying this image. As others have mentioned, the symmetry of this plant, the way you captured it, and those droplets with refractions really is a feast to the eyes. I think B&W was an excellent choice.
Quite stunning. I’ve never seen so many drops either. Excellent choice to go b&w. Curious…did you change camera set up to monochrome for this or just did it in post?
@Harley_Goldman@Mark_Muller@Igor_Doncov@Adam_Bolyard@Shirley_Freeman@Kris_Smith
thank you all for your comments, I glad you enjoyed my Lupine Drops image. Usually you see a few random drops on the leaves, but this was unbelievable. The leaves were slightly concave, which is what I think trapped all the drops in such straight lines.
I always shoot raw in color, and convert to B&W in post-processing. In Adobe land this lets you play with B&W sliders that let you manipulate tonality based on color ranges, in this case to darken green and lighten yellow. It gives you more creative options after the fact.
Gotcha, so you don’t flip your screen to monochrome even though you take a RAW image in color? The reason I ask is that I sometimes do that. Just to check that the tonalities, structures and overall elements suit a B&W conversion. I have one of my wheel options assigned to it on the back of the camera.
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mk4, I’m not sure it has that capability, or if it does, I’ve never learned how to use it. I know it will shoot B&W Jpegs, but I’m too lazy to to deal with shooting Raw + Jpeg at the same time.
Over the years I’ve just learned to “see” potential B&W images in the field. As long as I get a good composition, I know post-processing will give me a lot of tonality choices in B&W afterwards. With that said, over 95% of what I do is in color, I merely dabble in B&W.
Back in my Tri-X days I could do that easily, but the more I drifted away from b&w film and to color slide and print film, the knack got away from me. Digital photography made it worse and so tapping into the monochrome view sometimes helps me get it back. Lately I’ve developed (pardon the pun) a Digital Film exercise that attempts to mimic film shooting with a digital camera. I haven’t done a “roll” of Tri-X yet, but I think I might give it a try. I won’t use the monochrome screen, but I will shoot monochrome Jpegs + RAW. Hmmm.
I love lupine for this very reason, but we rarely get rain or dew when they are fully grown. This has to be the best capture of this subject ever! I think B/W is perfect to emphasize the patterns and symmetry here.
Wow Ed. I’m just loving this one. Excellent texture in the top layered leaves and the water droplets are so evenly spaced. You’d think they would collect down inside the by the stem. This is a very small nit but I might consider burning down the background plant leaves on the left side if you can select just those and create a luminance that is similar to the right side. This is so beautiful and symmetrical. This one is fun to explore.
Fascinating image. Really captures the eye and pulls me in. Critique-wise, I’d say the whites in the drops seem and maybe the center sema bit hot and the some of the lighter grays in the background seem too light. The darker grays in the background, like in the upper right corner look more appropriate and let the drop-covered foreground element really take center stage. I’d offer that this right edge might be a more appropriate brightness level for the interior of the image.
Beautiful image, Ed! The drops are so perfectly spaced over the the whole leaf, that’s amazing! I looked it up and the flowers are beautiful! I think the black and white is good for the drops too. You could do a self-portrait in rain/dewdrop series on different types of vegetation!
Love the symmetry and B/W works very well IMO. Great find with so many beads of water. I do agree darkening background would further emphasize the core of the image.
Tony, I agree with your comments about the drops and the center being too hot, I need to back off the whites off a bit. I don’t do much B&W work, and have a tendency to push the whites too hard, especially with specular highlights like these drops. I also will have a go at evening out the background luminosity. Good points, I appreciate having your input and suggestions.
) are so beautiful. And the droplets seem perfectly placed. Congrats on seeing this and capturing this image.