Dull, boring Thistle

[Julie Kenward]

Well, somebody has to follow that gorgeous photo of Anita's so I guess it might as well be me. I'll take one for the team!

This is a simple thistle plant I found while out on a short walk today at a local park. It was one of the few that I could get a clean background on - these things are usually in a thicket of unmanageable mess!

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
f3.5 @ 1/320th, ISO 200
Handheld, pattern metering, no flash
Late afternoon sun

I did clone out 2 OOF dried up leaves from the back of the plant to clean it up a bit. Also ran noise reduction on the BG to even up the greens a bit.

[Anita Bower]

Not dull and boring. As always, beautiful focus and detail in just the right places. You have a very steady hand. Lovely composition and great blurred bg. Are the whites bordering on being blown?

[Julie Kenward]

They are pretty close, Anita, but still in the "safe" zone. I think it was my choice of DOF that limited their detail more than them being blown highlights. I'll have to pump it up another notch next time.

[Harshad Barve]

Lovely BG , nice sharp image with great expo with killer BG
TFS

[Ed Vatza]

I see you stopped all the way down to f/3.5. :D First let me say thank you for taking the hit and following up on Anita's post! I am still wondering whether I should post mine or not. I think the detail is fine here. The background looks great. And the white look spot on. So all in all, a fine job Julie.

[Dave Leroy]

Nice clean bg. It may have been nice to have a bit more dof, but I like it as it is. The shorter dof gives a nice contrast between the outer part of the pod and the nice soft fluffy whites. I like it. Dave

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jules. The worst thing about this image is the self-deprecating title. :) :) This is a nice example of a fall thistle. I like the diagonal comp, exposure, sharpness, and background. As others have noted, I would prefer a little more DOF. IMO, a bit more room at the bottom so the leaves weren't quite so close to touching the frame would help and you might consider taking a wee bit off the top - these are minor items.

[Dave Mills]

Jules, Your backround is excellent and good diagonal comp. but I too would prefer more DOF since most of the image is soft. I also would have targeted more on the thistle itself since that is where most of the interest lies...

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jules, all the details are in the right places and well done BG.