Xiao Cai
January 2025 - Water Drops on Green Leaves
Original
About the Image(s)
This photo was shot on 8/11/2023 when I started to do macro photography. I walked into a park in the morning and saw this scene: very interesting water drops on the leaves. In the post process, I changed the background to black and white to emphasize the front leaves and water drops. What do you think?
Here I used my Nikon D850 camera (1/250 sec at f/16, ISO 100, Focal Length: 210mm) with a Nikon 105mm Micro lens plus a 2x Teleconverter, and a camera mounted Flash.
I also have shown the image before the processing to give you an idea of what I started with.
I welcome any and all comments / suggestions. Thanks!
12 comments posted
Welcome to the group. I am enjoying your first submission here. Great image of this micro scene. You have a good eye to even see this, setting aside the challenge of capture. I appreciate your sharing with us the starting image so that we can see the decisions you made in crafting the final result. The selective color and focus effectively highlights the saliant elements of this image.
It is unfortunate though that not all of the leaves are in focus. This is one of the challenges in capturing images with this level of magnification. The aperture used (f/16) is just not sufficient to the task, and I suspect that f/20 - f/22 would not help a lot as well. Focus stacking might be needed here to get all front leaves in focus. The parallel leaves with the drops are sharp, but the remaining leaves, less so. To my eye these soft leaves become a bit of a distraction.
Since, in this image we cannot bring back the sharpness here, why not address the 'distraction' quality and de-emphasize them some? Here we might darken and desaturate these elements some such that are less prominent within this presentation. I have created a version with these suggestions to illustrate my thoughts. The essential elements of your vision remain while the distractions are lessened some. See what you think …
Posted: 01/02/2025 20:29:26
It is unfortunate though that not all of the leaves are in focus. This is one of the challenges in capturing images with this level of magnification. The aperture used (f/16) is just not sufficient to the task, and I suspect that f/20 - f/22 would not help a lot as well. Focus stacking might be needed here to get all front leaves in focus. The parallel leaves with the drops are sharp, but the remaining leaves, less so. To my eye these soft leaves become a bit of a distraction.
Since, in this image we cannot bring back the sharpness here, why not address the 'distraction' quality and de-emphasize them some? Here we might darken and desaturate these elements some such that are less prominent within this presentation. I have created a version with these suggestions to illustrate my thoughts. The essential elements of your vision remain while the distractions are lessened some. See what you think …
Posted: 01/02/2025 20:29:26
Hi Charles, Thank you very much for your comments! I agree with you, and the focus is the problem. But I like selective focus, not everything in the focus. I like your edited version, and it looks much better. Thanks again! Posted: 01/02/2025 21:02:15
Selective focus is an appropriate path to take as long as one does not allow the deselected areas to become a distraction. This is far more difficult than it sounds since we get invested in the sharp areas of our images, and it is difficult to see the remaining parts as our viewer does.
One of the objectives of our editing can be to mold and influence how our viewers see our images, and that was the objective of my suggested edits. Posted: 01/02/2025 21:09:22
One of the objectives of our editing can be to mold and influence how our viewers see our images, and that was the objective of my suggested edits. Posted: 01/02/2025 21:09:22
Good point! Thanks a lot! Posted: 01/02/2025 21:36:06
Hi Charles, I made some changes as the following. Posted: 01/02/2025 23:49:29
I made some changes according to Charles's suggestion. Posted: 01/02/2025 23:39:26
Hi Xiao,
Great image and post-processing treatment. Darkening the background really brings the focus on the subject.
I like the edits, both from Charles and yours.
I am looking forward to see more images. Posted: 01/05/2025 15:19:16
Great image and post-processing treatment. Darkening the background really brings the focus on the subject.
I like the edits, both from Charles and yours.
I am looking forward to see more images. Posted: 01/05/2025 15:19:16
Hi Pierre, Thank you for your comments! Posted: 01/05/2025 15:21:37
Hi Xiao: From what you started out with in the original and the final post processed image is a very interesting change.
Our members have made some good comments. The green foreground leaves and then the 3 monochrome leaves in the close background is quit creative, the out of focus monochrome background works well. I think to achieve maximum impact both the green foreground leaves and the 3 monochrome leaves in the near background need to be in tack sharp focus. I agree with Charlie that using F/22 would not add sufficient depth of field, so focus stacking would be necessary. Posted: 01/06/2025 17:25:02
Our members have made some good comments. The green foreground leaves and then the 3 monochrome leaves in the close background is quit creative, the out of focus monochrome background works well. I think to achieve maximum impact both the green foreground leaves and the 3 monochrome leaves in the near background need to be in tack sharp focus. I agree with Charlie that using F/22 would not add sufficient depth of field, so focus stacking would be necessary. Posted: 01/06/2025 17:25:02
Hi Murphy, Thank you for your comments! I have never done focus stacking before, but I agree with you that it is probably the only way to achieve what I want: "visual impact." Posted: 01/06/2025 18:10:07
In case you want to learn a bit more on Focus Stacking, here I provide a link (https://photopxl.com/focus-stacking-and-its-application-within-macro-photography) to an article of mine on Focus Stacking that was published a while ago. Posted: 01/06/2025 19:26:44
Thanks!
Posted: 01/06/2025 19:32:01
Posted: 01/06/2025 19:32:01