Nice capture. It's actually a Grape Hyacinth (Muscari).
Watch the sharpening though. I see some halos, especially around the bottom flower. I'd sharpen this one selectively to eliminate those heavy edges that scream "digital!!!".
Thanks for the critiques. And good catch, Mary. I probably should have held up on the last shot of USM.
You know, I can remember picking these in a nearby field and giving them to my mother some 50 years ago. I remember her calling them bluebells and the name just stuck. :)
Plant names are tough because the common names are so often confused. There are at least 3 plants that are correctly called Blue Bells (Mertensia Virginica (Virginia Blue Bell), Scilla Hispanica (Spanish Bluebell), and Scilla non-scripta (English Bluebell) and to make matters worse, the last one has at least 3 scientific names, depending upon what the taxonomists are doing this year :)
So we can forgive your mother for calling Muscari (Grape Hyacinths) BlueBells. :)
Regarding sharpening, with this type of shot, I will often remove sharpening from the places where it looks too heavy. Or another strategy would be to put the extra sharpening only where it's needed. Both approaches are easy in Nikon Capture NX, and not too much harder in photoshop. Often the petals can take extra sharpening, while the edges often cannot, especially if there is a lot of contrast against the background.
I've always called them Bluebells
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote