(If the background has been replaced, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
A “captive specimen”, likely a hybrid. Soft morning light diffused by an overhanging oak. A focus stack with ZereneStacker. Canon 5D4, Canon 100-400 at 188mm, f/5, 1/400 sec, ISO 800. Basic tonal adjustments in Lightroom and some partial opacity cloning to simplify the BG a little. Some spots on the flower removed. The oak flower was placed there by the tree.
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Diane: Welcome to Flora and thanks for a fine first post here. Wonderful lighting and I like the party crasher. My only small suggestion would be to make the dark twig(?) going from the left upper edge of the bloom to the edge of the frame go away. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to more. >=))>
Thanks everyone, and thanks for the welcome, Bill! That twig bothers me too and I have done a partial opacity clone to lighten it, but it’s the stem holding the flower and without it things don’t look quite right. The tree gave me a challenging composition here. Maybe it is better without it…
Thanks, Lana – I had removed several others that were smaller and darker and thought I should leave that one for some sort of authenticity, since they are common on these flowers. But you’re right – only one just seems out of place. I never know how far to go with cleanup.
Thanks, Shirley! The lighting on these two small trees can be awesome on the occasional foggy spring morning, and often there is dew. I’ve never been able to capture (or present) the way it really looks.
