Colorful Decay

[Brendan Dozier]

I shot this ground cover vegitation with my old Rebel back in Sept. Liked how it was backlit, so got down on belly and set camera on macro using 18.0 - 55.0mm Lens. (don't have macro lens yet). PP - H&S, levels, curves, cloned out two blown out white spots on foremost leaf, toned down some light areas in BG, sharpening.

Its FF, but do you think it should be cropped? Should dead area on L leaf be removed? Pointers on getting more in focus? Thanks.

Rebel /Sept 2010, Mid morn / Mode: Macro ( Close Up ) 1/125 5.6 ISO 100
Evaluative Metering, Exposure Compensation 0, Lens 18.0 - 55.0mm
Focal Length 55.0mm

C & C welcome and appreciated

- Brendan

[Richard Lovison]

Hi Brendan,

I like the overall composition with the three leaves as the main subject surrounded by a collage of color. I feel the composition may have been stronger if you left a bit more room at the top and looked for leaves with less decay. As you have it presented, the one large area of decay is very close to one of the power points in the image, is also out of focus and presents itself as a distraction in my opinion.

Actually this image might be one to experiment with using Fractalius as it might make a wonderful abstract.

The best way to maximize focus is to focus a third of the way into your main subject and stop down as far as needed to get the desired effect. It's always a compromise. If you stop down too far your background may become too much of a distraction and if you don't stop down enough, parts of your subject will be out of focus. Shorter focal lengths at the same f-stop will give more depth of field than longer focal lengths. The closer your lens is to the subject, the less depth of field. Making sure all the objects you want in focus are in the same plane helps as well (thus the need for tilt lenses). There are also software programs available where one can combine multiple shots of the same subject taken at various focus points and achieve a huge depth of field. Helicon Focus is one as well as CombineZP (free).

Hope I've helped,
Richard

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Richard, great suggestions and explaination, that was very helpful.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Brendan. You had some interesting material to work with here and I, too, like the backlighting effect. Richard has given you a lot of things to consider in his thoughtful comments which should help out the next time you are in the field. For me, the mix of lights and darks in the background is drawing my eye away from your main subjects. If you can obtain a true macro lens, you could move in closer and focus on some of the interesting colors and patterns on the individual leaves (and eliminate the distracting background in the process). :) Keep them coming.

[Brendan Dozier]

Thanks Steve, good advice.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bendan,
Sorry......late to the party. You have gotten some great advice above......backlighting makes leaves glow so just tweaking a comp will provide some big benefits and take these type of images up a notch.