Hibiscus Stamen

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX on HSS + Diffuser (Better Beamer with translucent plastic substituted for lens)

1/1250 sec f/9 ISO 400 handheld

Cropped, Sharpened, and a few spots of dirt cloned out in CS5
NR in Noiseware Pro (probably not enough)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Ian,
I like the comp here and unusual perspective........the reds appear a touch dark but the fine hairs are fantastic! Just opening that up should take this up a notch.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Roman. I'll try lightening up the reds when I get home. The hibiscus in my garden was begging to be photographed, but I found the full-flower images to be un-inspired. I then tried some close-ups of the pistils/stamen and those looked run-of-the-mill too. It wasn't until I shot head-on with the pink flower and yellow anthers as a BG, that I got something I liked.

[Julie Kenward]

Lovely look at the stamen Ian! I also agree - give it a tweak in curves and pop the contrast a bit and this will really be something special. Nicely done!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Very alien-like, I like it alot. Great way to work the flower as a colourful BG too.