Bottle Gentian

[Ron Conlon]

I always have loved the character of these flowers. A composite (focus stack) of slightly over 100 images. Two oof leaves removed; pollen, dirt and blemishes removed. I know that is a lot of frames, but the software would have had me take twice as many, still without all the leaves in focus. I figured I wasn't missing too much at 100 frames. Lit with a remote diffused flash close to left front. Tripod, printed background, tethering software to acquire the stack (Helicon Remote), composited in Zerene, and touched up in Photoshop.D800E 200mm f6.3 1/200 iso 100

[Jonathan Ashton]

A gorgeous image, obviously in focus yet slightly soft and dreamy I suppose stacking 100 images does that but I like it very much indeed, I also like the background. I think this would make a very nice print.

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Jonathan. I liked the softness/dreaminess of this versus the hyperdetail that usually results from stacking, so I did nothing to counteract it--other than tonal variation there isn't a lot of (hairy) detail. I don't know for certain their relative contribution, but I think there are three reasons for the softness: 1) my understanding of the technical details is that the 200 images that the software wanted to use would have given more sharpness because they have sufficient dof overlap. Of course, I may not understand the interaction of optics, electronics and software. 2) I used stacking settings in Zerene which don't do the default HDR and 3) I did no "local contrast" enhancement in PS (for example, unsharp mask with large radius).

[BenBotha]

I feel you have sufficient sharpness, I like the "dreamy" appearance. Rest of techs=ok. Really a lovely image.
Ben

[Anita Bower]

Another beautiful image. I like how you got in close. The colors are wonderful. Good job getting rid of any blemishes. I have this flower growing in my garden and love it's color.