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Bob Miller
07-12-2013, 06:01 PM
I love Poppies so I planted these poppies in my backyard garden specifically to photograph
Nikon D3s
105 MM macro
ISO 200
.6 sec at f10 ( 3 exposure focus stack)
Comments please!

Jonathan Ashton
07-13-2013, 02:25 AM
I like the composition very much and I like the colours. I am a just a little bit uneasy about the fine detail, it looks sharpened and good an yet I sense it is not just quite in focus, something is bugging me - is it that some anthers and stigmas look sharper than others but recession is not even?? I am not an expert at stacking I did it a few years ago I must have another look at it.

Mitch Haimov
07-13-2013, 08:50 AM
I like abstract macro work, and I like the idea here, but it isn't quite working for me because of the nearly bulls eye composition, the nearly-but-not-quite square crop, the not sharp but not soft corners, and the distractingly bright petal edges. Maybe this is focus stacking heresy, but I think that even if the DoF fully covered the corners they would still compete with the more interesting center. Therefore, for your consideration:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2858/9274211807_97faa5e319_o.jpg

I cropped to square, added a masked Gaussian blur, and burned the bright edges (overlay layer filled w/ gray and a soft black brush at reduced opacity).

Nancy Bell
07-13-2013, 12:02 PM
I also love to photograph poppies. I think Mitch made an interesting presentation of your image, with more of the focus on the center and then the softer blur of color for the edges. I wonder how this would look if you had just tried to keep all the stamens in sharp focus during the stacking and let the petals with the luscious red color play a soft, framing role.

Bob Miller
07-13-2013, 04:51 PM
Mitch ........I like your presentation of my image....esp the crop and the blurring of the front edge. Thanks for showing me another way to see this!

Mitch Haimov
07-13-2013, 04:53 PM
Glad you like it, Bob.