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| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
Hi Russell, I agree with the others and their comments. I too would crop up but would probably crop down and in on the left. |
Mar 17th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Reply |
With the constraints you have given I guess I would stay with your image, or the crop Melanie made minus the green stem. |
Mar 10th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
Hi Diana, you have a beautiful rose. I agree with Melanie about having the rose on an angle and not straight up from the middle. I like to have my stems like this coming up from the left. This makes a better composition. We tend to read an image from left to right. With the stem on the left, it provides a nice path to bring the eye into the image and up to, in this case, the rose. I would like to see a different background. The white is too bright for my eye and distracts from the rose. The eye always goes to the brightest area in an image. I feel you did a great job with the detail and the capture of the rose. Love the colors of the rose. |
Mar 10th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
Hi Fran, I love your tulips and like the way they are leaning to the right. This adds a nice diagonal line to the composition of the image. I like your added sun rays. I agree with Melanie about a crop. I like the tulip on the right with one petal on a right angle, so I left it in on my crop. I did crop down from the top and removed the one green stem from one of the cropped tulips. I do like the texture you added. |
Mar 10th |
 |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
I like Lensbaby where very little is sharp. You are right Lensbaby gives a blurred, impressionistic look. With Helicon Focus everything is tack sharp from front to back. The two are opposites. No, you would not stack Lensbaby images.
I have several Lensbaby lens and enjoy using them and like that look kind of the opposite of what we try to achieve with a normal lens. |
Mar 9th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Reply |
Thanks, Melanie, for the kind comments. I am glad to be part of Group 65. I was in group 06 for a number of years and was the leader for about 10 years.
When you do stacks you start in the near edge shooting and work your way to back. Each shot has a very narrow sliver that is sharp. I shoot at f-8 which is right for my lens. Thats where the optics are best for my lens no diffraction. Helicone Focus recommends shooting two stops up from wide open. Helicone Focus then puts just the sharp parts together into one image. I find very little post to get a great image. I for sure shoot on a tripod with a cable release which I do for all my photography. I also shoot with mirror-up and I shutter the eye piece. To answer your question there's very little difference from this image and the original. I will clean up any blemishes but that about all. I am a big believer in getting it right in the camera.
You should check Helicon Focus out. They may give you a free trial for a month. I probably enjoy Helicon Focus the most of everything I do. |
Mar 9th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
Hi Jodi, you had very difficult conditions to try to capture what you could see in your mind's eye. I find it hard to come away with what I want and expect from myself in these situations. I usually walk away.
The shadows of the stamens don't bother me, but I usually never shoot in full sun due to contrast. When you shoot in full sunlight the whites or light colors tend to be blown out or there will be no detail in the shadows.
I like the composition with the diagonal lines of the flower going from the lower left to the upper right. There's nice detail in several of the stamens and at the base of the near petal. It is very difficult to hand hold and have much DOF at this distance.
I checked the histogram and found some of the whites in the petals are blown out. Because of this there's not a lot of detail in the petals. You have a histogram in your camera. This is one of the best tools you have to use. I sit up and when I shoot my first shot, I then look at the histogram. It will show if anything is blown out. I will make any adjustments to my exposure until get the perfect histogram. For my eye I like the color in the original better. The yellows are beautiful.
You ask about focus. For me I always manual focus. I want total control of focus. Also, you need to know when doing close-ups, the DOF is 50% in front of the focus point and 50% behind the point of focus. This can be important so not to waste any of the DOF.
I think you did a great job isolating the flower from the background. You did well with the conditions you had to deal with to capture this image. |
Mar 8th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Reply |
Many thanks Jodi. I love doing stacks. I have done a lot of them. I tend to really like an image that has the Lensbaby look or one that is sharp from front to back. With doing stacks you shoot two stops up from wide open. That is where a lens is optically at its best. I always shoot at f-8 then Helicon Focus puts all the images together into one. You would love it. There are several methods of doing stacks as far as moving the focus point back through flower, I use a very simple method that does not require any special equipment. |
Mar 8th |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
Hi Maria, Great image and I have enjoyed studying the two flowers.
Very nice soft light I find best for shooting flowers. Love the colors in the background. Very nice out of focus background although I might darken it just a bit. Nice detail in the flower petals.
I flipped the image and to my eye I like the composition a little better. I feel the leaf in the stem helps to bring my eye into the image. With the leaf in the right, it tends to take my eye out of the image.
I love a frame on images, I feel it makes an image complete and defines the space for the subject and provides the limits of the space for the image. I feel the frame in this image is a bit too large.
There's a lot to like about this image. You have a great eye to spot these two flowers and then visualize the image in your mind and come away with a great shot.
|
Mar 5th |
 |
| 65 |
Mar 23 |
Comment |
You gave a very good description of your method used to capture this image. This method is called selective focus. I have used this method often; I like to shoot with my lens wide open which is recommended. You're setting at f-7.1 worked well so I would not change anything. This method results in an image that gives that Lensbaby look.
You have nice soft lighting, and your method always gives a great background to the image. Love the nice diagonal going from left to right just the direction we read an image. Love the colors.
I find the flower on the left a bit of a distraction to my eye. I cropped off the left side and some off the bottom. I feel this puts the main flower, the focal point, in that magic lower third spot and provides more impact to the image.
Love the image. This image would make a great title slide for a power point program. |
Mar 1st |
 |
7 comments - 3 replies for Group 65
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7 comments - 3 replies Total
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