Ruth Mayer
October 2026 - Cosmos
About the Image(s)
My October photo is still working on waterdrops. I used a flower this time from my daughter’s garden. It is the same setup from last month's submission of the tomato. I don’t think this one is as dramatic as last months. Again, it was stacked in camera and ends up being a JPG.
This image was taken with OM1 Mark 1 (1/40 sec, f/16, ISO 10,000 auto). I had darkened the room and used something called a small rig for my light. I took it into PS and cleaned it up a bit and adjusted the exposure and the contrast. Also used Topaz to help with the noise
3 comments posted
Hi Ruth: Really nice image this round, very well done.
The tomato picture in September round was very creative in content, however a couple of technical items kept it from being well over the top. The bright reflections on top of the tomato and the border merges were distractions.
This months cosmos picture has none of those issues, there are no distractions in this picture. The spacing of the water drops is very random and well laid out and in sharp focus; then the pink petals are out of focus and make a nice backdrop for the waterdrops.
To me the pink background is okay exposure wise, if you wanted to experiment you could darken it a little and see what that looked like.
The yellow out of focus center of the cosmos flower adds another point of interest. Posted: 10/07/2026 03:18:21
The tomato picture in September round was very creative in content, however a couple of technical items kept it from being well over the top. The bright reflections on top of the tomato and the border merges were distractions.
This months cosmos picture has none of those issues, there are no distractions in this picture. The spacing of the water drops is very random and well laid out and in sharp focus; then the pink petals are out of focus and make a nice backdrop for the waterdrops.
To me the pink background is okay exposure wise, if you wanted to experiment you could darken it a little and see what that looked like.
The yellow out of focus center of the cosmos flower adds another point of interest. Posted: 10/07/2026 03:18:21
Another fine image using this water drop refraction technique. As you noted, this image is not as dramatic as the first tomato image submitted last month, but it is still an interesting image. In this technique, the background shows the subject that actually is being refracted in the water drops and is always soft and out of focus (otherwise the drops would not be in focus). Here the refracted subject (Pink Cosmos) is not as dramatic as the tomato in your first effort. There is not a lot of contrast in this subject, so the images in the drops are not as striking. This is a major point that is often overlooked in these types of refraction images.
In this specific presentation I feel that the subjects are overly constrained, and that more space is needed to allow the drops to freely populate the space. If you don't have more space that you initially cropped out, I would suggest expanding the canvas using the generative expand capability in Photoshop. Finally, I might echo the suggestion by Murphy in slightly darkening the background. In doing so you might find that the drops stand out even more than they do presently.
I have included a version of this image where these suggestions have been applied to illustrate my thoughts. Let me know what you think …
Posted: 10/09/2026 17:50:25
In this specific presentation I feel that the subjects are overly constrained, and that more space is needed to allow the drops to freely populate the space. If you don't have more space that you initially cropped out, I would suggest expanding the canvas using the generative expand capability in Photoshop. Finally, I might echo the suggestion by Murphy in slightly darkening the background. In doing so you might find that the drops stand out even more than they do presently.
I have included a version of this image where these suggestions have been applied to illustrate my thoughts. Let me know what you think …
Posted: 10/09/2026 17:50:25
Natalia Venkatesh
Very nice image. I love colors and placement of the flower center. Although it is not as striking as tomato, I find it is more gentle image. Black always makes a good background. May I suggest a bit tighter crop? I think in this image the flower in water drops doesn't stand out as well as tomato did. The flower has many petals and details and it makes drops look busy. I would actually zoom in to show less drops and less background flower. Attaching an image of what I am thinking. Posted: 10/10/2026 05:02:05