Progeny

Critique Style Requested: Standard

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

Description

Reproducing is something succulents do well, but this caught my eye. The mother piece was knocked off the plant in a windstorm a couple of weeks ago. (It was raining horizontally.) I brought it inside to photograph, but I was already busy with eclipse preparations when the weather unexpectedly cleared enough to give me a chance to shoot the current comet on several different nights. That and a new method of processing comets occupied my attention for 2 weeks, while the baby plant kept growing. I haven’t managed to get an image that conveys its visual appearance, either with stacking or with different apertures, but this is going to have to do, as it’s now back to eclipse preparations. (But I did get a comet image I’m delighted with – posted in the Nightscape section.)

Specific Feedback

All comments welcome!

Technical Details

Screenshot 2024-03-23 at 3.06.49 PM

Focus stack, shot in window light. Very little adjustment to the raw files. Into Zerene to stack and the final went into PS for retouching stacking artifacts and some BG work. B/W gave a more pleasing final look.

4 Likes

You may not consider this adequate, Diane, but I like it a lot. I can see that finding an angle that really emphasizes the baby plant is a challenge, but it comes across quite well in this version.

Just super you are building a black and white flower project. Keep them coming.

A stunning range of tonal values from the bright highlights to the deep shadows, Diane! It gives the image a sculptural quality, making the plant’s form stand out with almost a three-dimensional feel against the black background. :clap:

Diane, I love it. It virtually shimmers.

Thanks, @Dennis_Plank, @Steve_Rosendahl, @Saundie and @Barbara_Djordjevic! It’s still sitting on the countertop, waiting to be planted and still growing. I need to give up and plant it! Maybe it will have babies again next spring.

I just now saw the EP – been a bit distracted! Many thanks, @Bill_Fach and @Kris_Smith! A wonderful surprise!

Stellar image Diane and solar eclipse images are beautiful… No Words needed !!! images speak for themselves !!!

Hi Diane,
Sounds like a busy several weeks! That’s a great sign and I’m looking forward to seeing all you are posting.

This is wonderful as a black and white. I just adore the simplicity of it and the subtle texture in the flower(s). The background seems like it has a texture that echoes the flower’s own texture, and that is really captivating as it pulls me beyond the flower, giving me a more 3 dimensional effect.

Nice work!
ML

Everybody seems to display flowers in colour, but my preference is bnw. This is a delicate and vulnerable plant, and yet survives in the harshest conditions. It could be a metaphor for where we’re at with wildlife (and human) extinction threats. Just my political rant… the image needs no improvement in my mind.

Thanks, @madd_laura! Total agreement about the bleak survival situation now. Maybe plants have an advantage…

As always, your B&W flowers are super not an easy thing to do.
Steve

The B&W treatment works well - congrats on the EP!

I haven’t been on NPN in a while due to some health issues so I’m late to the party. I was looking at the “Latest” category and your photo stood out and just struck me as so ethereal. I know the word beautiful is overused, but this is really beautiful.