The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
In June of this year, @Steve_Kennedy and I spent a few days photographing around Mount Hood in Oregon, and I’m finally finding some time to work through those. For a couple of days we chased rhododendrons. They were prolific, but I learned in the chaotic areas they grow in around Mount Hood my skills were lacking; they were challenging for me. I do have a couple I may eventually post in Flora and Landscape, but I sadly tossed a lot of images that just didn’t work. (Fog would have helped a lot, but the clouds never quite dropped to the elevation the big rhodie displays were at.)
However there were other flowers blooming, and a patch of columbine along the road near where we were camping caught our eyes. I purposefully played with a shallow depth-of-field on several images on this trip, and this is one of those.
Specific Feedback
Historically I haven’t used a shallow depth-of-field much, so any thoughts there would be appreciated. Any suggestions on composition or color balance?
As always, all thoughts and suggestions are welcome; no need to be gentle.
Technical Details
NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 24-200 f/4-6.3 VR at 49 mm
1/250 sec. at f/8.0 and ISO 800
Seven images stacked in Helicon Focus to get the foreground in focus.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
I like the depth of field on this one, John. The largest view shows the subject in crisp focus throughout with a nicely blurred background. I do find myself wishing that the main flower didn’t lie directly in front of one of the background flowers You might be able to alleviate that by bringing up the brightness of the stamens on the subject a bit to separate them more from the background. This is probably my favorite flower and I think you’ve done it justice.
When I used to work in Seattle there were a bunch of us who did the hikes on the I-90 corridor after work and one of them ended up in an enormous field of these, which was delightful. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were as prolific as the Columbine!
This is nice John! I like how you created separation of the main bloom and it’s stem and leaves, all in sharp detail, from the rest of the scene. I agree with Dennis about brightening the stamens on the main bloom.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank and @Steve_Kennedy! I didn’t note the overlap of the foreground and background flowers until I got home, unfortunately, but I did once I had the images on the computer. My solution was to darken that background flower (the situation was worse in the original), but for some reason I never though to brighten the foreground stamens. Great suggestion, and I’m adding a version that does that.
The repost works pretty well. These are some of my favorite wildflowers, but they are so hard to shoot well, what with the least breeze moving them around and the dense undergrowth they usually favor. This is a pretty good compromise with all that taken into consideration. Great job with stacking, too! I don’t think I’ve ever had a day still enough to even try it.
