Sunflower + repost

Image 1:

Image 2:

Hello! Not much of a story to tell here, honestly. This was taken just across the street from my house, I originally thought it was a bit of a throwaway as the exposure was not great in the original. But I have had fun with creating some extremely high-contrast BW images in the past and decided to give it a try here. Then just played around with various settings and crop until it felt right. I like the way it came out looking almost like an X-ray image or something.

Specific Feedback Requested

Anything! :smiley:

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
1/800s
f/4.0
ISO 100
50mm

1 Like

Here’s the original, if it’s of interest, since the final image is so stylized:

Creative for sure. Shots like these against a much brighter sky are tough - expose for the plant and you blow out the sky. Expose for the sky (as you did here) and the plant is too dark. To get it right you can do one of each and blend them together. If you bring them into Photoshop as layers you could easily select the sunflower since it’s so sharp against a blank background.

But you found a way around that with the black and white. Creative and interesting. The crop looks a little tight, but it’s certainly eye-catching.

2 Likes

Striking!

The chiaroscuro approach is unique, and exciting. I like that you eliminated the clutter of the background vegetation and made a simpler statement.

I would like to see a trace of detail in the flower disk and the leaves to match the translucent ray petals of the flower, but that’s a personal opinion.

Well done. I like seeing the work of photographers going off in different directions.

Namaste

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I like the creative way you have dealt with the flower. Translucent petals against a high key background works very well. The darker leaves take away attention from the flower. I echo Paul’s comments on leaves.

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Very strong entry in the lemons-to-lemonade category, Matthew. I really like the graphic quality this now has. Feels like an x-ray, sort of.

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@_Kris @paul_g_wiegman @ravi @Tony_Kuyper thank you for your feedback! I’m glad to know that images like this are welcome on NPN as well, even if it doesn’t fit with the more naturalistic style most seem to prefer :slight_smile:

I loosened up the crop a little bit, and also brought some more detail into the leaves, which I think works really well. I also brushed on a little negative exposure to the stem because I felt that it lost some definition after those adjustments. After experimenting with the center, I think I actually prefer to keep it essentially black - it reminds me of a solar eclipse or a black hole, and I like the abstractness it brings to the image.

Repost is in the OP, let me know what you all think!

The repost is outstanding. Very cool!

Namaste

1 Like

Thanks @paul_g_wiegman, I’m pretty happy with it as well! I especially like the “glow” around the leaves :slight_smile: thanks again for your feedback!