Tiny Succulent Triptych (w/ revisions)

![Tiny Succulent Triptych]
Original Post

Revision 1 - with larger interior borders:

Revision 2 - with angled middle image

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been out with my camera, and since I’ve posted here. I was glad to spend an hour on an overcast morning trying to capture the beauty of the many colors and shapes of different succulents in pots in our backyard garden.

I decided to crop most of the images to a 1:1 aspect ratio. For these three B&W images I felt like trying out the Lightroom triptych template that David Kingham posted for us, with the smaller 1.25 border.

Specific Feedback Requested

I wonder if the visual weight of the two outer images overpowers the more delicate image in the center. What do you think?

Technical Details

Taken on an overcast morning.

Handheld, all at 70mm using a 70-200 lens with 36mm extension tube.

Left image: 1/400, f/8, ISO 640
Middle: 1/1000, f/6, ISO 250
Right: 1/500, f/6.3, ISO 500

2 Likes

Mark, I’m so glad you got out with your camera and found some subjects close by to photograph. That is kind of where I am these days, just my yard mostly. Still, there is a lot in our yards, especially if we shoot macro.

As for your question, I think the 2 larger images frames the smaller subject. I can’t image the 3 together any other way, myself. B&W works for this as well. The shapes, textures and lines become more pronounced for me. Very nice.

A nice selection of images with a variety of texture and structure. I am picking my favorite exposure -the middle one!

Hey Mark, good to see you posting. This is a really nice triptych. I think the B&W treatment works quite well. I do think the two outer images might tend to “squash” the more delicate center one. I wonder what it would look like with a bit more white space between the three images. Not the outer edges, just the two between verticals. It might allow the center one to breathe a bit more.

Either way, this is a really nice series. Well done.

Succulents are such great subjects and the B/W here is a very nice choice to show up the lovely shapes. The middle one is my favorite, but it does feel a but lost between the other two.

Might be interesting to put the big one in the middle, surrounded by two of about equal visual weight. I think the middle one deserves a frame of its own – in landscape format.

Mark: Nicely conceived and executed. Great to have you shooting and posting again. Not much to add to the other comments but I like the collection and I’m OK with how you arranged them. Well done. >=))>

Mark, I especially like the outer two (mostly because of the frame filling sharpness). The trio work together well because the middle one is so different from the outer two. Have you tried rotating the subject in the middle frame to 45°…might or might not be interesting.

Thank you everyone for your comments. Lots of great ideas for alternatives. I posted a couple of revisions incorporating some of your suggestions. Fun to see things differently!
@Diane_Miller, here is the original middle image in color and landscape. Yes, it is quite a beautiful plant in its own right!