passion flower

[Ron Conlon]

We have these Ohio natives growing in our backyard. I am not very good at tracking them from year to year, but they seem to be very late this time 'round. I don't know if it was due to the vicious cold winter or the fact that this part of the garden has become overgrown (because it borders a neighbor's yard and we need to weed it from their side) with rose of sharon and autumn clematis. I wanted prime specimens to try to stack in the lightbox, but distractions and commitments intervened. This bloom was a little further along than I would have liked, and earlier better blooms shot on black or high key didn't grab me.
So, freaky flower in a lightbox with printed oof vegetation backdrop, 8 shots stacked.
remote flash, tripod, Helicon Remote-tethered D5100, 200mm 1/200s f/9 adjusted down with a curve and set to camera neutral in ACR, stacked in Zerene using DMap, bug crawlingn around the bloom removed by retouching in Zerene, cropped and local contrast increased and sharpened for web in PS.

[John Robinson]

Hi Ron
I love these flowers. Not seen this one before.
I think you may be having a similar problem to me. I have looked at this several times and I admit at this res its difficult. There does however seem to be a couple of areas not quite in full focus. Its the outer filaments on the top RH and bottom left. They don't seem quite as sharp and I would reckon with 12 stacks they would be covered. WDYT ?
John

[Ron Conlon]

Right you are. I did need one more frame at either end--I usually do a few extra frames for safety but didn't this time. There is a lot of depth to these suckers.

[John Robinson]

Ron
Its a amazing how one little layer can go missing I am starting to go back to -the "less layers the better" !! Pehaps we are lookingat the pics too microscopically !! I never used to untillmI came on here !
Oh dear !!
John

[Ron Conlon]

Stacking attracts heightened scrutiny--with so much in focus, bits which are not attract the eye--and I am OK with that. I wasn't pursued by a wildebeast during the capture so there is no real excuse. I too have moved toward somewhat fewer shots to a stack by stopping down some more--still experimenting, but I need to take more on the ends. I am hoping for some fresher blooms and free time that coincides.

[Andre van As]

Hi Ron
This is a lovely flower and a very good image. As with all art forms the final presentation is up to the taste of the artist - so the OOF stem is OK - I try to keep the entire subject in focus because one can always do something creative with the stem. What sometimes appears to be an OOF cut is due to the lens "looking around" an edge. This can be fixed by retouching from the cut that is in focus. I often spend hours retouching.

Andre

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Andre. The oof stem was less an esthetic decision than one of convenience. I have my lazy moments, too. There was a bug crawling around the flower during acquisition, and it was on the stem when the stem was in focus, so I retouched the stem to use the oof slice.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A beautiful image I like the colours and the outstanding detail.

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous! The center gives it a very 3D appearance. No complaints from me....

[BenBotha]

Again, love the stacking, image, the Oof parts does not bother me.
Ben