Pierre Williot
January 2025 - Amaryllis Anther
About the Image(s)
This was an Amaryllis Anther from an Amaryllis flower that broke off. I placed it in a little dish and kept the base in water. 2 Lights to see in the groove of the anther and achieve good lighting on the anther and the stem. The red background is the flower.
Here I used my Canon R5 body with a Canon MP-65 (1x - 5x) macro lens, Canon EF to R adaptor, a focusing rail, 2 cube lights, and an extreme platipod clamp set-up.
Settings: 65 mm, 1/10 sec, f/9, ISO 400, 21 slices (approximately 1/2 mm intervals).
Post processing: Helicon Focus and ON1 Ra
13 comments posted
Great image with effective composition, subject presentation and color. I know that the Canon MP-65 (1x - 5x) macro lens is a difficult lens to work with, so kudos on your effort. With the number of slices you collected (21) with minimal focus adjustment (0.5 mm between each slice) I can see why using the focus rail was important. There were a lot of effective choices employed in creating this image. The only suggestion I might offer is to darken slightly and perhaps increase the contrast of the yellow structure some. To my eye this area appears a bit overexposed and some of the native detail is lost. One might consider a tad bit of sharpening here as well. I have created a version with these suggestions to illustrate my thoughts. Great effort and image. Posted: 01/02/2025 20:33:55
Hi Charles,
Thanks for these constructive comments. Posted: 01/04/2025 21:04:11
Thanks for these constructive comments. Posted: 01/04/2025 21:04:11
Hi Pierre: Very interesting subject; like the warm tones which add richness to the scene. The warm tone colors of orange stem, light greenish-yellow of the highly detailed surround, and the red toned background all blend together well. I do like the darkened background as Charlie has illustrated.
Regarding composition; You have biased the subject to the right hand side of the frame, the rule of thirds works well here as your flower is positioned on the 1/3 grid line on the right. Would position the flower exactly as you have done. Posted: 01/04/2025 07:03:24
Regarding composition; You have biased the subject to the right hand side of the frame, the rule of thirds works well here as your flower is positioned on the 1/3 grid line on the right. Would position the flower exactly as you have done. Posted: 01/04/2025 07:03:24
Its an interesting point as to whether a compositional "rule" such as the "rule of thirds" is appropriate in our macro photography.
My thought is that in cases where the subject is the major element, and the vision of the maker is to present us with the wonderful world of the micro-environment, the centered presentation many be appropriate. The positional offset due to this rule, may be less impactful. If the image is more about the subject in a set environment, then the "rule" may be more impactful, and should be considered. Note though that I say "should be considered", as the adoption of this rule is something to try and is not absolute. In the end, whether one applies this to their image or not, should reflect if in doing so, the image is improved or is more impactful.
I absolutely believe that "there are no absolutes in photography".
Posted: 01/04/2025 17:46:20
My thought is that in cases where the subject is the major element, and the vision of the maker is to present us with the wonderful world of the micro-environment, the centered presentation many be appropriate. The positional offset due to this rule, may be less impactful. If the image is more about the subject in a set environment, then the "rule" may be more impactful, and should be considered. Note though that I say "should be considered", as the adoption of this rule is something to try and is not absolute. In the end, whether one applies this to their image or not, should reflect if in doing so, the image is improved or is more impactful.
I absolutely believe that "there are no absolutes in photography".
Posted: 01/04/2025 17:46:20
All good points. Thanks. Posted: 01/04/2025 21:05:42
Hi Charlie: I do agree with you "There are no absolutes in photography" The well worn 'Rule of Thirds' does not work for many situations, however I will use it if it works. I have sat in on some evaluation setting where the evaluator is dead set against Centering the subject in the frame. I disagree with that statement as sometimes your photo works best if your subject is in the center of the frame. An example would be Architecture subjects for instance.
I have my own rule, it is "Artistic Balance". Posted: 01/05/2025 07:42:23
I have my own rule, it is "Artistic Balance". Posted: 01/05/2025 07:42:23
Thanks Murphy. Posted: 01/04/2025 21:04:52
Hi Pierre,
It is an interesting subject and your image makes me wonder. I like the warm color tune and vibrant colors. I think it is very difficult to shoot this kind of subject well, because of the anther's texture, which hardly focuses well. I think the focus point should be in the anther, but my eyes always draw into the stem at the bottom of the image because of the lighting reflection on the stem. Maybe you can change the lighting, or direction of the subject, at which don't let the groove of the anther in the image center. It is just my thoughts.
Thanks for sharing! Posted: 01/05/2025 14:39:17
It is an interesting subject and your image makes me wonder. I like the warm color tune and vibrant colors. I think it is very difficult to shoot this kind of subject well, because of the anther's texture, which hardly focuses well. I think the focus point should be in the anther, but my eyes always draw into the stem at the bottom of the image because of the lighting reflection on the stem. Maybe you can change the lighting, or direction of the subject, at which don't let the groove of the anther in the image center. It is just my thoughts.
Thanks for sharing! Posted: 01/05/2025 14:39:17
Hi and Welcome Xiao.
Your point is well taken. I used constant lighting and was aiming to reduce the shadow inside the anther folds. Unfortunately, the stem was more reflective that the other components.
I will darken a bit the stem to make it less distracting. Posted: 01/05/2025 14:45:28
Your point is well taken. I used constant lighting and was aiming to reduce the shadow inside the anther folds. Unfortunately, the stem was more reflective that the other components.
I will darken a bit the stem to make it less distracting. Posted: 01/05/2025 14:45:28
A humans, our eyes tend to go to the brightest area first, and then to the sharpest areas. We can't help it, it's how we are wired. That being said, we can take advantage of this aspect, by balancing (most often in post processing) the bright areas. In this image the pollen sacks are quite bright, but the stem is a tad brighter (due to the reflection as was noted), and as such we find our gaze falling upon the stem first (as Xiao also noted). Now we know why this happens. If that is not what was desired, then darkening the stem as Pierre suggests is a valid solution. I agree with all that was commented upon earlier, but I thought I would pull the thoughts together so that these concepts could be applied to other images. Posted: 01/05/2025 16:53:19
Great observations. Thanks. Posted: 01/05/2025 16:57:52
Nice subject but I thought the background rather distracting and boring, not fitting the subject. Posted: 01/12/2025 21:50:48
Hi Neal,
I did not choose the background..... This is a petal of the flower itself. The Anther was photographed without removing the anther from the flower. Posted: 01/12/2025 22:29:25
I did not choose the background..... This is a petal of the flower itself. The Anther was photographed without removing the anther from the flower. Posted: 01/12/2025 22:29:25