C&C Sharper RedBud Image

[monochromekx]

Here is a sharper image of the Red Bud ready to bloom, using sme suggestions

from yesterday. This is unmolested in Photoshop other than resize and convert

to JPEG for upload. Lost a lot of light and color in the conversion. 100% crop.

 

K10D & Vivitar S1 105/2.5 macro

1/100 @ f/11 AV ISO 250 (auto) AWB Daylight

[xpiotiavos]

I think this is a really good example of how much the background affects an image. I like the previous version over this new-fangled tripoded version because of one thing: the background.

 

in the last one, the background was smooth and almost unnoticeable. the green with just a hint of purple in the out-of-focus regions really made the flower buds stand out. I also think this new one's a bit too widely framed. including the tips of another patch of buds makes the shot seem unintentional.

 

from a technical standpoint: it's hard to tell anything really--the version you posted is very small. but from what i can see, it seems a bit underexposed and the color seems a bit drab (color might fix itself with exposure).

 

I couldn't do much PP with such a small file, but it ran it through Lightroom and here's what I came up with:<div></div>

[xpiotiavos]

oh and your sensor needs a good cleaning. i removed three spots of dust from the cropped photo.

[personalphotos]

I must confess that Paul took some of my advice. The crop is too wide and the lower buds do distract from the central focus of the image. Adam's crop is about right. This was shot in different light (cloud vs sun??)and at a different angle. The new angle changes the background. The casual observer wouldn't notice as much but the background colours in the new shot take away from the look.

 

So in some ways we're getting closer. Watch the backgrounds and in this case tighten the crop. Everything in the frame is important, so look it all over before taking the final shot.

[monochromekx]

@Adam - thank you for the comment and the PP work. FWIW I played with the crop on this image to and mine is very similar.<p>

 

<a target='_blank' href='http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=redbud2uf2.jpg'><img src='http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1223/redbud2uf2.th.jpg' border='0'/></a><p>I am amazed how much gets lost between PEF, TIF and JPG. The color and vibrancy of what I uploaded is definitely different from the originals. I have some more work to do in an editor.<p>In order to get more DOF I closed the aperture, bringing out some of the background.<p>Peter - the angle is different. I wanted to have the entire twig on one plane to help with the focus issue and DOF. That changed the background so that I was shooting into the tree rather than into space.<p>The light is different as you suspected - 1:52pm (not the best time of day for this kind of image) and clear, bright sky versus 4:53pm and overcast on the other shot.<p>As these blooms emerge I will try other lenses to see what happens - K28/3.5; K35/3.5, etc.<p>This is all truly experimental and for learning - I must say there is quite a lot to remember. For instance, I got so involved in the focus and DOF I forgot to bump up the ISO manually.<p>Oh well - I read I get 100K clicks from a K10D.

[personalphotos]

Paul, 100K? that's it?/ Oh no, the way I'm firing I have 52 days left Lol.

 

The Imageshack version looks much better than the one posted at first. The crop is great and the colour is good. It's a touch soft but that might be the crop from the original. The focus plane is good. Just see if it's possible to get this and control the background (maybe just the time of day will fix that), then you have a winner.

[monochromekx]

<i>It's a touch soft but that might be the crop from the original.</i><p>I think I need a better eyeglass prescription or the eyepiece loupe if I'm going to more of this close stuff <i><grin></i> 'cause I sure don't know what sharp is.<p> I also should archive the better compositions and work more on them when I get a better PC and monitor and Lightroom. Doing this on a laptop is impossible.

[ianmaleny]

Paul, have you focussed the viewfinder to your eye? My eyes are really poor, but I have little difficulty focusing the K10 since adjusting the viewfinder correction.