Lynne Hollingsworth
March 2019 - Gerbera Daisy
About the Image(s)
Gerbera Daisy
Taken in the lanai. We used to get one or two flowers blooming, but since I decided to feed them some balanced orchid food, there are 5 flowers and one on the way. I found the center of the daisy the most interesting, but there's something missing in this image. Placement maybe, too much of the enter that I perhaps should have cropped out?
Not sure, but I welcome your thoughts.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted
Showing 1/4 of the blossom is unique. I don't know how to react. Perhaps if the contrasty light at the top were on the entire flower? Why do I see a grainy texture--that is a bit unusual. Please tell us the story of the shooting and post-processing more. Thanks. Posted: 03/18/2019 22:57:57
This is a bright red Gerbera daisy that provided some nice contrast. I darkened the background, then used Nik silver effect pro for conversion. I used strong contrast to pull out more detail. I tried some smoothing to reduce the grain, but I wasn't happy with the result.
It still isn't what I had in mind, although I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Maybe that's the issue - I don't have a clear vision on this image. Posted: 03/22/2019 20:08:29
It still isn't what I had in mind, although I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Maybe that's the issue - I don't have a clear vision on this image. Posted: 03/22/2019 20:08:29
The detail when I looked close is amazing. However the light fall-off is quite dramatic from bottom right to top left and I think this is your problem, because the eye gets drawn up and then there's nothing there -just black background. I feel you need to keep the light much the same across the whole flower. i don't know how much of the flower made up the original picture, but I wondered if it was possible to cut off the top and left side so that the picture became even more constrained to just the centre and a bit of the florets at the back. Then I would use the curves tool to increase the contrast. Posted: 03/19/2019 10:07:19
I'm thinking you're right about the light falling off. The light is very different in Florida than it had been in NJ and even after 3 years, I'm still getting used to taking images outdoors.
I noticed how blue the afternoon light was the other day - was it that blue before or am I just becoming more aware of it?
Posted: 03/22/2019 20:15:43
I noticed how blue the afternoon light was the other day - was it that blue before or am I just becoming more aware of it?
Posted: 03/22/2019 20:15:43
Like Diana, I like the details in the close-up of the daisy. Focus across the full depth of field in single shot macro images is so incredibly difficult for me, so I'm impressed you were able to get most of the image so sharp. I was a bit distracted by the slight blur on the petals in the back row on the right side, however. I wondered if a more intentional blur there would work, but I'm not certain about that. Diana's suggestion to crop even tighter to further emphasize the details seems like the better idea than mine here. Posted: 03/20/2019 00:41:28
I've just started using photo stacking as we have anew macro group in our society and one of our members uses it to get stunning images. It takes time to get the focus of every bit right but does work well. Ps seemed to cope even with a large number of images to work with. It means even the back bits would be sharp. Posted: 03/20/2019 06:42:16
Nice sharp image. I do like Diana's suggestion to crop in more, and get rid of the black area. Posted: 03/21/2019 18:48:39