I photographed this leaf on the surface of a lake this past November. The water was really being whipped around by the wind and the leaves were skirting across the surface like sailboats at a race.
Canon 40D, EF 400mm f5.6L
f9 @ 1/250th, ISO 400
Late afternoon sun, fill flash fired
Processed in ACR/CS5: Darkened one area of the leaf tip and cloned out debris in water.
NR with Neat Image.
Very nice, Jules. It's dynamic and well-composed. Great detail on the near part of the leaf. It's fun to compare the raised parts of the leaf with the shadow. I wonder how it would look if the shadow were opened up just a bit, but I think it's a great image just the way it is.
Hi Jules. You've certainly been making good use of your 400 mm "macro." Beautiful blues and excellent sharpness. This is nicely composed, as presented, but I'm wondering if the image would be even stronger if the leaf was positioned at a little more of a diagonal ( I expect the wind direction had a lot to do with how the leaf was positioned ). There are a few small whitish specs scattered around on the water surface that start to catch my eye when I really study the image - a minor point and an easy fix. Overall, this is very well done!
Steve, I also wished it had been more on a diagonal but I liked the details of the leaf and the movement of the water enough to go ahead and process this one. I know what you mean about the lighter areas of the water; the original would have driven you crazy as the white spots were much more pronounced...I painted them with a soft blue at 20% to calm them down a bit. I'm sure a polarizing filter would have been a good thing to have in my bag that day...
The partially submerged leaf looks great but the shades of blue you came up with is what I really like about this one....amazing colors! I'm with Steve about having the leaf at more of a diagonal....have you tried rotating it slightly CW? Even if you don't have enough canvas to do a slight rotation without cropping away some of the water, I bet you could do a convincing job of cloning in the missing areas. I also would like to see more detail in the reflection, even it it is just a tiny bit more. I love these 'leaf-on-water' images so keep them coming!