Agave 2

Mike, I figured this was yours before I looked at the name. Composition, color, lighting are all excellent. I'd be curious to see a full-size crop of one of these f/32 images. I'm sure there is diffraction. Downsizing for the web like this sharpens things up of course. Have you ever considered taking one at f/32 and one in the sweet spot of the lens (maybe f/11 for instance) and then blending them for focus/sharpness? 

Extremely well made and thoughtful image. I would not question the presence of diffraction at f/32, though it doesn't appear at this size. I would love to see this at a larger size to see if it is noticeable. I suspect it would be miniscule, and is more than made up for by the dof created. I also wonder if a happy medium could be achieved with some kind of focus stacking, perhaps as Brad mentioned, or more to my taste with a longer series of shots at the same focal opening, around f/8 for this dof. I would think you might get both the good dof and better detail. 

Later: Here is a beginning treatise on diffraction relating to focal opening. An interesting and complicated subject.

I've been shooting at f/32 since 2004.  Diffraction was a problem in the film days because you couldn't do anything about it.  We're in the digital days, we have sharpening tools to deal with the little bit of softness from the diffraction.  Todays lenses handle diffraction better than the old lenses.  When I was in the art show business for 7 years, I blew up my images to 24X36 prints and they looks great, nice a sharp.  Great Big Canvas sells my images and the blow them up to 40X60 without any issues.  If you view my website, most of my images are in focus from top to bottom and side to side, and those are all shot at f/32.  One of the issues I've had with NPN's site is the images tend to post a little on the soft side.  I post the same images on 500px and they are much sharper in details. 
 

Great 'extracted' composition from the larger plant, Mike.  I love the light, and the strong lines and curves.  One thing that I like to see on Agaves is the indention on the underlying 'petals' from the top 'petals'.

Nathan

Hi Mike, another great composition - very nice detail! The vignette works also very well.
Cheers, Mark

Mike, What sharpening tools do you use (if you don't mind sharing)? You're right about NPN's sharpness factor. 

Mike: Brilliant comp and a great capture. I especially like the placement and sharpness of the orange tips and the lighting. Superbly crafted image.>=))>

Stunning Mike! Beautiful composition and colors. Very pleasing result.

Sanjay

Brad, over the years I have used different sharpening tools.  Unsharp Mask in Photoshop, Structure in Nik's Viveza, Details Extractor in Nik, and lately the sharpening options in Smart Photo Editor.

Hi Mike  Congrats on  the WP      Awesome in every aspect


Albert Darmo
Canada