The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
A 35-image stack of Blue Cohosh berries. We have tons of this plant in the yard (because the woody parts are so heavily shaded), but not many of the berries make it…something must eat them (probably birds). This plant is a prime example for being careful. Just because an animal eats something, doesn’t mean people should. Ditto for different parts of the plant. The root is famous for its medicinal uses for centuries, often to induce labor, although used improperly it is toxic as are the berries in any amount. This little overwintered cluster was too cool to pass up. I moved a pair of berries out of frame before concentrating on these five.
Specific Feedback
Just too weird? I know it’s just some berries, but I’ve never photographed them before and thought it would be a good challenge for the new lens. Did I miss anything in the stack??
Lr for basic raw editing - color & wb correction, texture & sharpening, smoothing of the dynamic range. Zerene for stacking…slabbing process first to help speed retouching. Final image is a DMap with some PMax detail added in. TIFF massaged again in Lr for better contrast and a touch of lens blur to help with some of the harder lines of stems and sticks.
Kris: These are an absolutely very worthy subjects IMO and your capture and processing brought out the best in them. My only suggestion for this frame would be to lighten/soften the dark area on the bottom edge. It does distract a tiny bit. I could also see a portrait comp including the stem joint. Pretty small nits for a really fine capture with a marvelous color palette and contrast. >=))>
Your image shows excellent texture and detail, Kristen. The background is nice as well and lets the berries pop. There’s an artistic feel to the image that makes me think it would look good framed.
Good advice from Bill. What really strikes me is how every shot you post from this lens seems to be getting closer to perfection, Kris. As so often, you are great at bringing out the best in simple subjects. Here the color contrast between berries and BG is so good. The stack looks spot-on to me. Keep them coming!
Thanks @Bill_Fach , @Allen_Brooks & @Mike_Friel - glad you didn’t find this too ho-hum. It’s been a horrible time to get a new macro lens with the wind we’ve been having so I haven’t done anything good with it in a week. I did manage to discover that the lens function button does indeed work on my Lumix - woo hoo! The trouble was the setting it had when it arrived wasn’t something I could detect on the screen when I pressed it. Adding to the problem is that none of my other lenses have function buttons, so I wasn’t familiar with that menu. With a little digging, I found the menu and have set the button for DOF preview, just like on my Olympus lenses from the 80s. Fun.
Anyway…I did my best to make the dark area have a bit less presence. Thoughts?
Interesting subject well presented! The stack looks perfect and detail on the berries is so nice compared to the soft BG. And a new plant to me – apparently isn’t found out west. Sounds like a lovely understory plant.
Thanks @Bill_Fach & @Diane_Miller - I tried a couple of things to get the dark area lighter, many made it muddy and weird, so I went with this version.
It is a nice plant on the forest floor because it loves shade and so gets a foothold in places other plants just can’t tolerate. It looks similar to a couple of species of Meadow Rue, but when they bloom you can tell them apart easily. Also Black Cohosh is very different from Blue and they aren’t even related, but take their names from similar applications in herbal medicine. I have shot of the flowers that I might add here. It’s not a great photo, so be warned.
Kris, I love these! Very nice improvement on the revised version. I’m sort of back. I have a ton of stuff left to do, but at least I have my computer back and new internet connection, so able to view and comment some as I get the chance. Thanks again for checking on me.
