Lady Slipper

[Roman Kurywczak]

Taken yesterday at Bowmans Hill Pennsylvania.........was pretty windy and bright..............but this was in the forest............had to wait for breeze to stop as I was hand holding! The BG is a tree that was approx. 1 foot behind. Tried to use as much ambient light as i could to balance flash. Mark 3, sigma 180mm macro, mt 24 twin lights at minus 1 & 2/3 at ISO1250 at f16 and 1/60 sec. .......... handheld.........but elbow braced on the ground.

[Robert O'Toole]

The light is nice and the sharpness is good and I like the comp, the only thing that is a negative for me is the BG. Its noisey and a light colored spots distract.
Did you try any WO or close to WO? I wonder if this would have helped smooth out the BG?

Wish the flower had a green meadow for a BG instead of the tree bark.

Robert

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Robert,
At about picture 50........I was wishing for the fake/real looking BG........forgot it at home! I also forgot to run noise ninja on the BG..........oops! They do usually grow in the forest........so this was the best BG I could come up with. Having a party.....probably won't be able to re-post with Noise NInja until later!

[Ed Vatza]

I was going to comment about the noise but that has been addressed. Otherwise, a very nice image. I also like the composition and the subject. I would reserve judgement on the tree background until I see a noise reduced version.

I am keeping an eye out for lady slippers but with no luck. I guess I should just head down to Bowman's although I seem to recollect seeing some at Peace Valley as well.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Roman, this is a subject with a lot of depth, so I think you did well getting it sharp while maintaining a decent BG.

[Julie Kenward]

I really am not bothered by the BG (except for the noise) because, to me, the twirl of the lady slipper's leaves basically have that same twirl pattern of the light/dark areas behind it. I think they make a decent match overall.

[John Cooper]

You did very well under the circumstances Roman. I was also wondering if you could have got away with less DOF to soften the BG more, but with a forward and behind leaf you probably needed every bit of F16 ;)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Here's the image with Noise Ninja applied everywhere except yellow of the flower.