Red Maple flowers and seeds

Spring has sprung with a vengence here in the Mid-Atlantic over the last two weeks with many days in the 60s or 70s. While the spring ephemeral wildflowers are just getting started, the trees and especially the Red Maples are very dramatically colored. This is a 10 shot stack using Helicon Focus of a Red Maple bloom with a mix of flowers and young seeds, with more flower/seed heads for the background. A detailed look at the spring colors that Ed McGuirk wrote of in his recent NPN article.

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
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A lovely image, Mark. A great start for the challenge. You might look at darkening/removing the light colored patch half way up the right edge. It tends to pull my eye a little.

Excellent stacking, Mark, resulting in some nicely sharp detail. I do wonder if a slightly darker tone would be even better - but then I don’t know the shade of these in actuality. Lovely image whatever.

I love the color of these gorgeous blooms, Mark! The focus stack works perfectly here with very part in focus yet the back ground is very soft and blurred which makes it look very 3D. Nicely done!