Wild Geranium - w/Repost

Gallery: FloraPosted May 18, 201154 views11 comments

I found quite a few of these growing along the path in the woods. I tried to find one that I could isolate from its surroundings, and this one seemed to fit the bill. I also liked the unopened buds that accompanied this one.

There was no way to frame it that would position the buds nicely and have the blossom parallel to the camera sensor, so I had to go with greater depth of field to get the flower sharp. That brought the background into more focus than I would have liked, but I felt the compromise was necessary to achieve my goal. I'm interested to hear your thoughts... Does it work? Should I have focused just on the blossom to get greater separation?

All comments welcome

Nikon D80
Mode: Manual
ISO: 320
Lens: Nikon 300mm f/4
Exp: 1/8 sec at f/16
Tripod & release

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Miro Susta on May 19, 2011 at 6:57 AM

Jeff thanks for identification of this flower. I've a similar photo and was just searching for the name. I like the dual colour composition. May be I'd suggest to clone the small violet spots at the top-right.

Registered on August 18, 2006, 719 Posts, 3736 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on May 19, 2011 at 8:56 AM

Jeff,

This works very well for me. I like your decisions all the way around. The buds are great and bump the image up a level I think. I do agree with Miro about cloning out the lavender at the top. if you wanted to you might darken the area to the viewer's left of the bloom to the top a bit to match the other side. It's mostly that intruding leaf that draws my eye. For my tastes this is very well done exactly as posted though.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Bob Duff on May 19, 2011 at 11:01 AM

Jeff, I like it as posted. To go with your desire to have the buds and flower in focus and the BG OOF you could do two things: 1. double process this one image and on the second copy darken the BG greens a little and then use gaussian blur to blur as much as you like and then blend the images. 2. Redo the shot with two takes.

Registered on April 21, 2010, 160 Posts, 1675 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Graham on May 19, 2011 at 2:43 PM

Jeff, I like your choices, and this is a beautifully sharp image of the flower and the unopened buds.

Registered on July 27, 2010, 1310 Posts, 5035 Comments

Comment posted by Bruce King on May 19, 2011 at 2:54 PM

Nice shot Jeff, the bg looks fine IMO. A stack of only a couple of frames might have achieved your objective quite well. But this is very nice as is.

Registered on January 14, 2010, 276 Posts, 2212 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on May 19, 2011 at 6:08 PM

Jeff: Your DOF management works great for me. I suppose this is the kind of situation that would lend itself to stacking if you are so inclined. I agree with getting rid of the lavender OOF element in the URC. I think I would merely crop to just below that. Maybe going to 4:5 ratio with most cropped from the top would be best. Cloning away the leaf tip on the left side would be the final detail. Well seen and a great find.>=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on May 19, 2011 at 7:14 PM

Great detail and lighting Jeff

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Moats on May 19, 2011 at 9:52 PM

Hey Jeff, I hope to be shooting these next week, we are a couple weeks behind on our wildflowers. Nice comp, good details, and Bg works for me.

Registered on October 20, 2004, 892 Posts, 6324 Comments

Comment posted by Jeff Loomis on May 20, 2011 at 12:04 AM

Great feedback everyone and much appreciated. My processing skills coming along, but I've never tried stacking. So here's a repost with some of the suggestions applied - cloned out partial blossom in URC, toned down the top left to match the rest of the image, and applied some Guassian blur to the background. I like the result a bit better. What do you think?

Registered on January 26, 2010, 68 Posts, 719 Comments

Comment posted by Carolyn Derstine on May 20, 2011 at 11:02 AM

I really like your repost, Jeff. The darker BG helps set off the plant. Great details on flower and buds. I'm also still trying to learn what all can be done in processing--there is so much to learn! I live in Telford, PA, not far from you. Even though this area is getting quite developed, there are still many beautiful wildflowers to appreciate and photograph in our area if one just looks!

Registered on February 16, 2011, 610 Posts, 3684 Comments

Comment posted by Bernie Kasper on May 23, 2011 at 1:56 PM

Love the repost Jeff, you created a beautiful piece with this, well done !!

Registered on June 5, 2005, 251 Posts, 3734 Comments