Straw Flower

[Mitch Carucci]

Tokina 100mm F2.8 @ 5.6-8. Lens mounted on Olympus E-P2 (M4/3rds). 4 image stack.

[Diane Miller]

Beautiful! Love the sharpness and colors, and the gradient in the BG, with the darker area top left making the petals stand out so well.

There's a thin light area, just along the LH edge, that you'll want to clean up.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image very much indeed, it has a slightly gritty appearance and I think this enhances the overall feel of the image. I think the colours are wonderful, someof the stamens do not appear to have stacked properly but the petals look very good indeed. The right hand stem bifurcation shows some slight smudging. I like the background - was this a studio shot or was it in the garden?
With the 4/3 system I think you may have greater DOF than other SLRs if so I would have a go at shooting something similar without stacking just to see if you could get adequate DOF at say f16-f22.

[jack williamson]

This is beautiful, the flower looks like it is glowing. Sharp everywhere, love the bg look.

Jack

[Mitch Carucci]

Jonathan,

Even with M4/3rds, I couldn't get enough depth of field to cover Yes, some of the stamens are not quite there. I am a novice with regard to stacking (A lot of fun though). I am using a program that is an extension to Elements (Elements XXL) . I bought it for other reasons, and then found it has image stacking. I tried another pic (I like the first better, however) with a stack of eight @ 5.6, and I think the sharpness is better. I have not tried any of the stand along stacking programs, so I don't know if they would do a better job.

This was taken in the backyard, but I was using an LED ringlight.

Thanks for your comments.

M.

[Mitch Carucci]

Thanks Diane, Jonathan and Jack.

M.

[christopher galeski]

nice images,like them both,but prefer the second wich as a nice BG.

[Jonathan Ashton]

The second image is really beautiful, you have very good detail there and as previously the colours are gorgeous.

[Anita Bower]

Excellent images of a gorgeous flower. I like the light and brightness and detail. I see the flaws in the first post as mentioned by Jonathan. But these do not occur in the 2nd image (except for a bit of a blur on the stem and right leaf). Perhaps the 8 vs. 4 images in the stacks made the difference. I think you will get perfect images as you practice a bit more, as these are already beautiful. I would clone out the little curling thread that is on the stem of each flower.
I have a question about Elements XXL. I use Elements 10, and wonder what features you like in XXL.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Mitch. I think you are really onto something here - the light and colors are outstanding and the flowers contrast very nicely with the background! I see the smudged areas Jon mentioned - but I'm not skilled enough with stacking to help you out there. I think both images would be even better if you applied some NR to the backgrounds. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these images!