Prairie Lupine

Critique Style Requested: Standard

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

Description

The breeze was pretty low this morning, so I decided to try for some stacks. Some were successful, some not. This was one of the first ones and it worked reasonably well, I think.

Specific Feedback

There’s a lot of clutter at the bottom of the frame, but it didn’t bother me much so I left it alone. The one element that bothers me is the beginning bloom head that’s pretty bright and a grass seed head opposite it that is also pretty bright. Should I try to remove them? I also cropped on the right to try to make a reasonable cut on the bloom head on the edge-does bisecting it work?

Technical Details

Sony A7Riv, Canon 180 mm f/3.5 macro, tripod, f/4.5, 1/1000, iso 800, 23 image stack in Helicon Focus. Further processing in LR & PS CC. Straightened and a slight crop from the right.


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1 Like

Dennis: I love lupines. In Texas we call them bluebonnets and they are the state flower. My immediate first impression and it’s sticking with me is to crop away both of the small flowers on the right edge. They do pull my eye away from the stars of the show. The BG elements are fine with me. Our bluebonnets are long gone so this is a nice treat. >=))>

The first thing I noticed was the bisected flower on the right. You mentioned that you cropped from the right. If the entire flower can be restored with enough buffer space on the right, I would consider that. Otherwise, I agree with Bill Fach’s crop recommendation.

Beautiful image, Dennis. I really like the leaves and grass at the bottom of the frame. Not distracting at all in my opinion. The water droplets sprinkled throughout are very nice. I would agree with the cropping suggestions offered by Bill and Bill, but other than that I think everything looks great as is. Thanks for sharing the image. Lupines are starting to pop up here, so I’m looking forward to getting out and photographing some soon.

Lovely image! I also noticed the bisected flower on the right. I might suggest either restoring the whole thing with a slightly-larger comp, or removing it completely.