Deptford Pink

[Ed Vatza]

My wife and I went for a walk this morning in our favorite local state park – Jacobsburg. She sought out birds (spotting a Cerulean Warbler and Indigo Bunting among others) while I looked for wildflowers to photograph. I ended up focusing my attention on some Oxeye Daisies, Moth Mullein, and Deptford Pinks. I particularly like the Deptford Pinks because of the color and also because they are so tiny compared to many of the other wildflowers blooming at this time. I should point out that at the same time I was photographing the Pinks, my wife was spotting the Cerulean. So we were both happy albeit for different reasons!

This image was made using my Canon 30D and Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ a Canon 500D close-up filter/lens; tripod mounted.

(1/125 sec @ f/8; ISO 640; 0 EV; Focal length 155mm; natural light)

[Bob Allen]

Lovely flower. I like the comp & OOF BG. Perhaps it's my monitor but there is blue fringing on the upper edges of the top 2 petals. Oversharpened?

[Chris Starbuck]

Ed,
I love these too. Hard to find in such great condition. I like your composition, and the BG is very nice. I might have tried for just a little more DOF to cover the nearer petals, or not;). What you have looks good. I try to remember to take multiple shots of macro subjects over a range of apertures, because often I don't decide how much DOF I like best until later.

The fringing Bob mentions (blue on the right, red on the left) is chromatic aberation, probably from the 500D. It's usually pretty easily corrected either in ACR or in PS's Lens Correction filter.

[Ed Vatza]

Bob, Chris,

I really appreciate the comments/feedback. I've come back to this image several times and, for the life of me, I can't see the fringing/CA that you speak of. My old eyes must need some rest. Or it's not showing on my iMac monitor.

I normally try different apertures as well. It always seems to come down to a dof/background issue. When I tried to add more dof, I started to lose the background.

Again, thanks for the comments. Much appreciated.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ed

Love the look and feel One of the best you have posted Possible to do little tweaks here and there but one fine image as presented !!! Big Congrats !!!

[Chris Starbuck]

Ed,
Here's an 8x enlargement of one petal to show the fringing. I wouldn't have noticed if Bob hadn't pointed it out, but once he had, I could see it (on the original) by taking my glasses off and sticking my nose on the screen.;) You can see here it's only about 1 pixel wide.

[Alfred Forns]

Thanks for posting Chris Much easier to see !!!

[Ed Vatza]

Ed,
Here's an 8x enlargement of one petal to show the fringing. I wouldn't have noticed if Bob hadn't pointed it out, but once he had, I could see it (on the original) by taking my glasses off and sticking my nose on the screen.;) You can see here it's only about 1 pixel wide.

OK, I can see it on the enlargement but I still can't see it on the original. And how do I now get the noseprint smudge off of my monitor screen! :o:)

[Ed Vatza]

OK, I went back to the original image and looked at actual pixels and I could finally see it. I went into lens correction and tried to fix it. I may have ended up over-compensating. How's this?

[Stephen Stephen]

Ed lovely capture of a beautiful flower. I like both versions that you posted. Perhaps my monitor isn't good enought to pick up the "fringing" in the original.

[Chris Starbuck]

Ed,
(Once again rubbing my nose on the screen - gotta get some cleaner!:D) That's improved the fringing. I don't know that the Lens Correction filter could do much better. I think it's probably designed assuming a wide angle lens, for which any fringing will be proportional to the distance from center, i.e., none at center, more near the edges of the frame. So if you look very closely, the fringing is pretty much gone from the upper right petal, but is stll present on the lower left petal (which is near the frame center). The real solution, for next time, is to carry the macro lens along.;)

In any case, this has been an exercise in extreme nit-picking:). It's a beautiful image.

[Julie Kenward]

Lovely image, Ed. I think this is one of the best "little flower" images you've ever done. The rich colors and comp are just perfection. Now that the fringing is gone it's really lovely.

And don't ask me about the nose cleaner...my monitor is a mess as well!

[Anita Bower]

Very nice image of this lovely little flower. I like the composition, the plain BG. Perfect dof.