Night Blooming Hesperaloe - RP

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe2
HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe21579×2000 967 KB

Edited

![HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe.jpg]

HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe
HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe1579×2000 992 KB

Original

Critique Style Requested: Standard

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

Description

This image is from a visit to my favorite gardens in Southern California seven years ago. They have an incredible array of different and unusual plants, especially in their cactus gardens. I searched for the ID and finally found that this is a night blooming hesperaloe, closely related to the aloes, but part of the asparagus family. They have chains of blossoms several feet long.

Specific Feedback

I’d been trying to get a decent image of some hummingbirds near these flowers for quite a while with my long telephoto lens, and I never was able to really get a good DOF or angle. However, I really liked the way this one turned out with just a narrow slice in focus and a nice dark BG. I cropped this down a little bit, but it is probably 85% of the original frame size. Any comments or suggestions are more than welcome. I’ve been going back through some old files looking for something to keep me busy while I’ve been chained to my desk to let me foot heal up. . .

Technical Details

Canon 5DMiii, f8, 1/2500s, iso1600, 100-400+1.4tc at 560mm. Cropped for composition.

Critique Template

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2

I like the composition of this image, Ed, but there are three areas (see image below) that look like there’s some banding around brighter areas in the out of focus plants and both the bright areas and the banding pull my eye away from the interesting parts of the image.

Ed-HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe copy
Ed-HLGNightBloomingHesperaloe copy1579×2000 482 KB

1 Like
3

Thank you @Dennis_Plank. I noticed the banding in the top one and used some Gaussian blur to tone it down some. I’ll go back and rework all of those areas. Thank you. Reworked, but still not really happy with the banding fixes.

4

Your edit fixed the banding, but they are still eye grabbers. I’m a bit at a loss of how to handle that issue. If I think of something I’ll post it.

1 Like
5

Thank you @Dennis_Plank. I’ve thought about it, and struggled with it, but does the eye-grabber issue really need to be fixed in this one? I think it is good for the viewer to let their eye travel back along that long stem of blossoms. I would hope that their eye would come right back to those blossoms that are in focus. I hope with the dark BG the ones in focus stand out enough to claim the main focal point.