Mexican Tree Fern Frond

[Linda Dulak]

Yesterday Norm and I took a trip to Longwood Gardens in PA. While there was lots to see outside we are always drawn to the conservatory with it's wonderful display of a variety of plants that we rarely, if ever, see otherwise. The problem is that the background of most plants is very busy and especially in the hallway were these plants are growing. There's greenhouse windows behind the plants which makes for difficult photography. Yesterday Norm brought along a black background. He held it while I photographed this unfolding frond of this fern. The ultimate length of this frond when unfolded is about 4 or so feet long.

Canon S95, aperture priority f5.6, 1/200s, ISO 400, hand held. PP: black background selected and lightness and brightness reduced, levels and slightly increased saturation on the plant. sharpened.

Comments welcome.

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Linda.

This is a most interesting fern frond. The large curved structure is complemented by the smaller curved structures within the larger structure, and the delicate fibers are fascinating. This is well captured and presented, and the black background sets it off nicely. Well done!

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hello Linda, I think you and Norm work well together. Lovely Fern frond, nice detail and exposure.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nicely captured Linda and interesting subject. Itook a similar fern in my garden earlier this year and I think I had a similar slight issue. DOF is just a little limited I appreciate the DOF is higher on non SLR cameras but I think you need a slightly smaller aperture. The lowest frond is not so sharp as the higher fronds they are nearly all indifferent focal planes so the DOF will need to be quite large. Having said that it is not far out at all and is a very eye catching subject. I think the square crop works well, the exposure is good.

[Diane Miller]

I love these things -- would love to see a time-lapse as the fronds unfurl! I think this is a good subject for a focus stack, to capture the wonderful detail.

[Linda Dulak]

Thanks all for the comments. It's very difficult to photograph in the conservatory as this is one of the main hallways to other rooms, especially the orchid room that everyone wants to see. It was a quick grab of one shot. Focus stacking wouldn't be possible in this heavily traveled area but I should have used an f8 on this, the smallest aperture on this camera. That would have probably given me the DOF needed.

Linda

[Ron Conlon]

A very nice subject and background. I see that some insect photographers with their Canon 65mm MP-E lenses do focus stacks handheld--I don't know what the secret sauce is, or how many attempts it takes, but if they can manage that with such a narrow depth of field, it might be worth investigating for a situation like this.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Linda. This is a very attractive fiddlehead! The lighting looks perfect and the black background really helps to emphasize the white "hairs." My only issue is with the DOF - as mentioned already above. A higher f/stop would really put this one over the top!

[Linda Dulak]

Steve: Thanks for the comments. I guess there is hope. Since this is in a conservatory I can return to try another shot. I know now I can shoot at higher f stop to get everything in focus. It's a big fiddlehead, fairly thick, but I think I could get it all in focus. Next trip I'll try again!

Linda