Palm leaf

[Jerry van Dijk]

Haven't had much time for photographing lately, so here's an old one. Walking trhough the rather dark tropical greenhouse of Leiden's botanical garden, I was struck by a ray of sunlight backlighting this palm leaf. I went for a classic composition with the central vein as a diagonal. I especially like all the texture between the veins that the backlight made visible. The image seems a bit soft here, I had to compress a lot because of all the fine detail.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 10 mm (60 mm eq.), F/3.6, 1/25 sec, ISO 200, -0.3 EV, RAW. ACR5.0: WB, curves, blacks, clarity, sharpness, vibrance.

[Anita Bower]

I love it! It glows. Perfect composition and patterns and light. (There is a little black spot that needs to be cloned.)

[Ken Childs]

This looks great, Jerry...even with the extra compression!
The detail between the veins is also my favorite part of this capture. You might want to remove the partial vein in the LRC. Well done!

[Gary Hamilton]

Very nice image. The patterns between the veins look like evergreen branches. Cheers.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi all, thanks for pointing out those little details! I had missed them compeltely....

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jerry,
I always love these big leaves backlit! All my issues are covered above.......so very nicely done!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Jerry. This is a beauty! The backlighting is wonderful and I like the diagonal comp. The sharp main veins with the softer green patterns in between is very appealing. Well done.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

nice light green , well done !!!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thank you Roman, Steve and Kostas!

[Chris Korman]

I like this composition, though I think this may look better as a B&W.