Stuart Ord  


Romanesco Broccoli by Stuart Ord

November 2023 - Romanesco Broccoli

About the Image(s)

Sue bought us one of these interesting vegetables the other day, and it got nabbed immediately for photography!
This was taken with Adaptalux white and red lights for illumination from opposite sides.

OM Systems OM-1, 60mm macro lens, 1/30sec, f6.7, ISO 200. A bracket of 6 images, merged in Affinity, then lightly edited with the RAW editor.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
10 comments posted




Keith Au   Keith Au
Very interesting looking vegetable.. Definitely a great idea for photography! Like the beads like spiral cones, esp lining up in 3 diagonal rows.. The lighting is perfect and the red colour bottoms add a lot more flavour.. Wondering what this broccoli look like while not under close-up view..   Posted: 11/06/2023 04:30:06
Stuart Ord   Stuart Ord
Here's a picture of it, with a normal-size mug for scale.   Posted: 11/07/2023 22:14:55
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Gloria Grandolini   Gloria Grandolini
Hi Stuart, I love this image. I always wanted to take a macro picture of this vegetable - it is an amazing example of a Fibonacci sequence in nature. You did a wonderful job and I love the red lights to complement the green. Also it gives it an abstract feeling. You inspired me to actually go buy one and photograph it too!   Posted: 11/08/2023 20:17:08
Stuart Ord   Stuart Ord
How are you getting on with your photography of the brocolli?
I've read that it has elements that follow the Fibonacci sequence (which I think is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 etc) but I can't find anywhere which explains this. I can't see it. Here's a closer picture, lit by white light and a highlight from a red laser. (Weird effect!) Can you see it? If only I'd not sold my MP-E lens, that might have been clearer.

  Posted: 11/17/2023 21:34:34
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Gloria Grandolini   Gloria Grandolini
Yes you are correct - it is a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. I guess if you look close enough one should be able to discern it in this vegetable! In any case it is a great image. And I will definitely go look for one soon and try photographing it too.   Posted: 11/21/2023 00:29:52



Pat Glenn   Pat Glenn
glad you showed the original whole broccoli - have never seen this one and you were right to kidnap it for photography. red light is a great touch - that should be your Christmas card :-). the little white highlights almost look like Christmas tree lights. it looks to me like everything has merged into focus so it sparkles.   Posted: 11/13/2023 04:27:01



Tom Pickering   Tom Pickering
(Groups 0 & 53)
Great stack - the focus is good throughout. For me, it's a little flat, which might have been worse if not for the colored lighting. Had a go at adding some dodging and burning to bring out more dimensionality. Thoughts?   Posted: 11/17/2023 19:23:24
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Stuart Ord   Stuart Ord
It seems to me that the main effect of your editing is to darken it and to improve the colour saturation. An improvement! The vegetable, as you can see in my second image, is amazingly flat in colour and contoured in its shape. Most colours on the light made little effect, apart from red. The white I guess is my white main light being reflected, it was unexpected when I set it up.   Posted: 11/17/2023 21:00:32



Carol Sheppard   Carol Sheppard
What a gorgeous image! The color combination, repeating patterns and swirls of leading lines created by both color and contrast give this not only initial high impact but continuing interest. The crop works so well for it, too! I love this image!   Posted: 11/20/2023 04:15:37



 
I love the repetition of the spirals in the image and the contrasting colors of red and green. The highlights on the tops of each spiral and then the red in the deeper parts add depth to the image. I like it a lot.   Posted: 11/21/2023 17:44:29