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Ramesh Adkoli
07-13-2009, 11:50 AM
True to its name, this flower blooms in the morning and by noon, shuts its shop!

I would have loved the BG to be more washed out. But this flower blooms close to the ground and is surrouned by leaves;-( Appreciate your views.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2434/3615743407_fa616eda29_o.jpg

EXIF: Nikon D700, 105mm Micro VR, 1/90s, f/16, ISO 200, manual, hand held, Auto WB

regards,
ramesh

Julie Kenward
07-14-2009, 12:01 AM
Ramesh, I think the strongest thing about this image is the composition. I really like that you have the flower in the ROT's position and think you have just the right amount of "negative space."

I also feel the image is underexposed. You've got quite a bit of black area in the image and, despite a levels adjustment, I found it was still really prominent. Fill flash or even a positive exposure adjustment would probably have helped in this case to give the image a more evenly exposed BG.

Also, you chose f16 as your aperture and I actually like the result - you have some detail in the surrounding environment of the plant which is really nicely done. However, you suggested you would have liked a softer BG and using an f/stop of half that amount (f8 for instance) would probably still have given you a nicely focused flower and really cut the detail in the BG - just something to remember for next time!

Ramesh Adkoli
07-14-2009, 01:11 AM
Thanks again Julie for your detailed input on this image. It definitely helps in my learning process.

Yes, the image is a bit underexposed. I had opened up the exposure quite a bit in the initial processing. The black spots among the leaves are because of the shadow of leaves onto the ground and are detailless. I could not do much about that. I reprocessed the image and used the fill light feature of ACR to open up the BG a bit. I am reposting it here. I feel this has an edge over the earlier post. Let me know what you think.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2579/3719016569_24d9ef705e_o.jpg

regards,
ramesh

Kaushik Balakumar
07-14-2009, 02:24 AM
Neatly composed image as Jules already mentioned.
Liked the texture on the petals.

Julie Kenward
07-14-2009, 07:27 AM
Ramesh, this is better - it evens out the depth of the dark tones a bit more. I still think you could get even more out of the flower, though...maybe push the highlight slider in levels to about 245...

Ramesh Adkoli
07-14-2009, 07:51 AM
Thanks, Kaushik.

Julie, glad you found the new post better. a stupid question: are you referring to the white triangle in the levels? If so, that is at 214! There were no pixels beyond that point.

regards,
ramesh

Julie Kenward
07-14-2009, 10:10 AM
Ramesh, when I open the image up I see the white slider at 255 and the middle gray slider at 100. I moved them both in to get a lighter/brighter image - taking the white (highlight) slider to 236 and the middle gray slider to 1.39.

Ramesh Adkoli
07-14-2009, 10:35 AM
Julie, I agree. If you open the jpeg image and alt-click the white slider, you would see some pixels at 255. I had left it at that when I worked on the RAW converted image after pulling the white slider to 214. If i make the above adjustments on the jpeg image, i get the same lighter/brighter image. isn't it too bright?

regards,
ramesh

Mack Hicks
07-18-2009, 11:39 PM
Getting Dark, packing up from shooting birds at a new feeding station in my yard. Was going to try to shoot this flower with macro lens, but decided what the heck, a 500 will fill the frame.


D300, Nikon 500 f/4

1/40, f/4, ISO 800 Ev -.3

Anita Bower
07-21-2009, 08:01 AM
I think I prefer the second post of the image. Beautiful composition and detail in the flower. I don't have more to add that Jules hasn't said.