Spring Beauty

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Av mode
.4"
F16
ISO: 200
LR & CS3

Another of the tiny wildflowers that show up in early spring.

[Desmond Chan]

Another high key beauty ! I think I see a scheme here :) The only thing I'm struggling with is if I'd like to see the stem sharp....

[Ken Childs]

Another high key beauty ! I think I see a scheme here :) The only thing I'm struggling with is if I'd like to see the stem sharp....
I agree with you and I'm really not sure why the stem is as OOF as it is. Believe it or not, I did some extra sharpening on that stem but it didn't help all that much. I guess I need go to F22! :)

[Julie Kenward]

Ken, from the angle, it looks like the stem was curving away from your focal plane just beneath the blossom - that could be why the stem didn't quite make it into focus. Next time take one of the plant and one of the stem and then use it as a layer over the background layer and mask off everything else so the flower below comes through.

Beautiful, soft flower...love where this series is heading! Keep 'em coming!

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful high key shot. Excellent composition and sharpness in the flower. I agree with the others about a little more sharpness in the stem.
F22 would probably decrease overall image quality due to diffraction.

Markus

[Stuart Frohm]

This is a beautiful, classy image on its own and as part of the series. This would be an excellent exhibit, book, or both, sir.

If the OOF stem bothers you (although it does not bother me), may I suggest cropping from the bottom to a point closer to the blossom and also cropping down a bit from the top to achieve proportion you find pleasing?

I hope to see more in this series.

[Anita Bower]

Lovely! I like the attitude of the little flower and bud, the colors, the white BG. How did you take this? Indoors? Outdoors with a white foam board in back? These are tiny flowers! :)

[Ken Childs]

Thanks everyone for your comments!


Lovely! I like the attitude of the little flower and bud, the colors, the white BG. How did you take this? Indoors? Outdoors with a white foam board in back? These are tiny flowers! :)
Anita, it was indoors next to a large glass window and I used the LED flashlight on the flower. I use a sheet of foam core that's white on one side and black on the other. I have a shot of the same flower with the black BG that I'll post soon.

Most of these early season wildflowers are tiny and this species is actually one of the larger ones. The dandelion seemed huge after shooting all these little things! :)

[Anita Bower]

Thanks everyone for your comments!


Anita, it was indoors next to a large glass window and I used the LED flashlight on the flower. I use a sheet of foam core that's white on one side and black on the other. I have a shot of the same flower with the black BG that I'll post soon.

Most of these early season wildflowers are tiny and this species is actually one of the larger ones. The dandelion seemed huge after shooting all these little things! :)
Thanks!

[Charles Wesley]

Ken,

Looks like this flower is in the primrose or portulacae families. Are the flowers somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 " in diameter? The pink, white and yellow flower parts are killer when seen together.

Really like your technique. It's very difficult IMO to get the stems focused on small flower portraits. You could go f/32. Not sure how much it will help.

Thanks for sharing...
__________________________
Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

[Ken Childs]

Ken,

Looks like this flower is in the primrose or portulacae families. Are the flowers somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 " in diameter? The pink, white and yellow flower parts are killer when seen together.

Really like your technique. It's very difficult IMO to get the stems focused on small flower portraits. You could go f/32. Not sure how much it will help.
Hey Charlie,

These flowers are in that size range. For some reason, this years batch doesn't have as much color as usual.

The problem with my camera or any DSLR and small apertures in the DLA (Diffraction Limited Aperture). Sharpness starts dropping off at f7.8 on the T1i. The high megapixels helps compensate for this problem but at some point the quality suffers.

Check out these links. There's a sensor comparison chart on the first link and the last column lists the DLA for many of Canon's cameras.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-Rebel-T1i-500D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx
http://tinyurl.com/y9oltx7