The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Last week I went looking for something to shoot and some ferns caught my eye, with this fruiting one among new green leaves, but the BG was not pretty. So I relocated it to a nearby flat rock. The ID is from Picture This.
A focus stack as I couldn’t get a good angle. Minor LR tonal adjustments. Cropped from the sides, subject dodged.
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Hi Diane, Your rock worked well as a background. Overall a wonderful fall color vibe with different hues in a monochromatic palette. What really captivates me is the detail in the patterns of the fern when I zoom in on the image. Definitely need to view this image on a large screen. Out of curiosity, did you get any closer images with your macro? The only distracting element I see is in the UR corner. Don’t think burning it in would look good. Maybe a slight crop to minimize it. Just nit picking at this point. Thanks for sharing.
Subject matter, Check! Detail, Check!, Lighting, Check! It is a fascinating photograph and the detail you’ve captured with all the spores is awesome. The lighting is interesting as well. As far as the URC, I only marginally noticed it after @Paul_Dileanis mentioned it. You could clone it out using the surrounding rock detail to mitigate it. I actually really like the light green edges on the fronds, as they serve as the perfect highlight.
Thanks, @Paul_Dileanis and @Youssef_Ismail! I hadn’t even noticed that area in the corner but now I can’t unsee it. I think I can lighten and desaturate it a little to make the color blend in – will try later. I didn’t notice the green edges until I started shooting it – they are cute.
I carefully put this in my pocket and brought it back home – and even remembered to take it back out. (I find a lot of interesting things in the dryer.) It curled up when it dried but it’s now in a glass of water and still looks good. I should try some closer magnification – the little spores are interesting. (The leaf is 1.5" across.)
Beautiful limited color palette. I like the barely-there touches of green that help the shape stand out well. When fresh, ferns are symmetrical, but as they age they lose that aspect and become interesting in a different way. I also like the bit of shadow. Super.
A very cool find and you picked a great background for it, Diane. I didn’t notice that URC until it was mentioned and don’t really find it to be an issue. My attention is pretty well riveted on the fern.
I really like this image.
P.S. The brown bumps aren’t the spores themselves they’re the structures that create them. From the University of Mississippi extension service: “The bumps on the bottom of fern fronds are called sori, and they contain the reproductive structures of the plant. Unlike higher plants, ferns do not bear flowers and produce seed, they produce spores, more like fungi. The spores are produced in groups or packages called sporangia, and sporangia are produced in special structures on the bottom of the leaf called sori. Look closely and you can see some of the sporangia associated with each sorus in the photo. Some ferns produce sori on most all their fronds, while other species produce sori only on special fronds, called fertile fronds.”
It would be cool to see how much detail you could get in those structures with a super close-up.
Thanks, @Kris_Smith and @Dennis_Plank! I’m not good at plant nomenclature – I’ll try to remember that. It does sound familiar – maybe from undergraduate botany?
I’ll try a super-closeup asap. A million mushrooms have sprouted and they are calling me.
A corner cleanup posted above – I just did a soft-edged selection and a few tweaks with Hue-Sat. I always hope I can do things like that before resorting to cloning.
Diane: Shame on me for being so late to this party. Really good idea to use the rock as your BG. I also appreciate the natural history lesson from @Dennis_Plank and @Kris_Smith. Makes me glad to be part of such a marvelous community. >=))>
