Posted by Scott Bideau on July 26, 2013 at 1:28 PM
Wildflowers (and any intimate / close up shot) are not my thing, but I'm trying to do better with them. I took this a few nights ago up near Dumont lake after Rod's report motivated me to get the camera out. The light/storm wasn't as good as I had hoped, so I tried a wider angle to take focus away from the Rabbit Ears formation and put more on the foreground.
C&C are appreciated - specifically I'm interested in advice on how to better combine the foreground wildflowers with the background elements etc. For example, should I have focus stacked or is the DOF appropriate to not call too much attention to the background. Those types of things would be very helpful to me.
Pretty scene, Scott--but it looks very blurry, even the near fg. To answer your question, i would have ditched the bg entirely and just gone for a comp of the flowers, the bottom 2/3. Then just use a bg f, and get it all in focus. Keep at it, man!
Posted by Scott Bideau on July 26, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Thanks Stan. Something about my export or the display on this forum platform must be making it look blurry, because at 100% zoom and print proofing, it's sharp. That said, I just saw your wildflower photos and am ready to rip my print proof in half :) Next time you go on an wildflower hunt, give me a call. I'll pay for the gas if you let me tag along!
No need to pay for gas, just beer Make sure your file dimensions are matching the final web display dimensions. It might help to sharpen first, then resize to the web size. Also might help to boost the contrast a bit.
Hi Scott, agree with Stan. If you want, we can first get your image submitted to the strict NPN standard so it appears the way you want us to see it. Its just going to be tough to critique a blurry image, especially when we are discussing DOF.
I suppose there are different ways to downsize and sharpen for NPN, but I would be happy to share with you my workflow. What's your original file size and do you use photoshop?
The blur issue has been addressed, but something you said caught my eye:
"..is the DOF appropriate to not call too much attention to the background?"
Does this mean that you don't want the background to be sharp? In my view, most landscape images (incl. this one) should be sharp from fore to aft. There are differing circumstances of course, but not here IMO.
Posted by Scott Bideau on July 27, 2013 at 12:22 AM
Kane (and others): Check out the image at http://photos.scottbideauphotography.com/colorado/h61cfaaaf#h61cfaaaf and see if look sharper to you. If so, please do share your workflow so I can see how to get something as sharp on NPN forum.
Regarding sharp background, I shot this at f/11. I consciously choose that because f/22 wouldn't do much more for the background since it's so far away compared to the flowers (and it would cause diffraction). I then decided that I'd like the focus to be on the flowers and not the pines in the background (half of which are dead from beetle kill). So, I tried to get the transition from in focus to not so much in focus right between the flowers and the green background, or about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the image. Not saying I nailed it , but that's what I attempted :)
Sharpness is a funny thing with me. Like so many digital photog's, I started out being so nit picky about sharpness during pixel peaping. Then once I started printing stuff at 24x36 and hanging it on the wall, I realized things didn't have to be tack sharp to be a great image. Not saying this image doesn't need work (or re-shot if it's out of focus), but I am trying to highlight the emotion I want the image to portray, and sometimes that means not everything is in focus.
So you tell me - am I crazy? Like I said, wildflowers are definitely not my thing.
Discussion
6 repliesC&C are appreciated - specifically I'm interested in advice on how to better combine the foreground wildflowers with the background elements etc. For example, should I have focus stacked or is the DOF appropriate to not call too much attention to the background. Those types of things would be very helpful to me.
Thanks in advance!
I suppose there are different ways to downsize and sharpen for NPN, but I would be happy to share with you my workflow. What's your original file size and do you use photoshop?
Regarding sharp background, I shot this at f/11. I consciously choose that because f/22 wouldn't do much more for the background since it's so far away compared to the flowers (and it would cause diffraction). I then decided that I'd like the focus to be on the flowers and not the pines in the background (half of which are dead from beetle kill). So, I tried to get the transition from in focus to not so much in focus right between the flowers and the green background, or about 1/3 of the way down from the top of the image. Not saying I nailed it , but that's what I attempted :)
Sharpness is a funny thing with me. Like so many digital photog's, I started out being so nit picky about sharpness during pixel peaping. Then once I started printing stuff at 24x36 and hanging it on the wall, I realized things didn't have to be tack sharp to be a great image. Not saying this image doesn't need work (or re-shot if it's out of focus), but I am trying to highlight the emotion I want the image to portray, and sometimes that means not everything is in focus.
So you tell me - am I crazy? Like I said, wildflowers are definitely not my thing.