Golden Dreams

"Hint of Fall"

Here is a try at macro photography using a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 lens. I

took this along a stream running through an Aspen grove in Rocky

Mountain National Park. I have been at this location before, but never

tried macro here. The large water bead on the middle leaf eventually

made its way off the leaf and back into the adjacent stream, thus, ending

my shoot here. I don't consider this the worlds greatest image, but I liked

the way the filtered light was striking the leaves. This was shot tripod

mounted D700, Sigma 50mm, f/1.4, ISO200...with the focal point on the

large water droplet...I tried to use the hyperfocal distance at f/1.4

w/respect to the angle of the image to get most to all of the droplets in

focus. Also, I did a little post processing in CS5 to bring out a little more

detail.

Overall, I really like this photo. The distrubution of leaves throughout the frame works well, the colours are nice, details are rendered well.

The only thing that really distracts me are the blown-out white blotches in the upper middle of the frame. Also the outlining of the highlights there looks not so great (green outer rings) - it all looks a bit messy and draws attentions to itself, while the good part of the photo is in the lower left. It looks like these discolourations are partly also due to post-processing, as they look sharpened. Maybe mask out the top area in photoshop?

But overall, a really nice autumn mood!

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Question, though. From your intro, I must say, I do not really get what you described. Hyperfocal distance in macro-area at f/1.4? There is so little depth of field that a hyperfocal distance really does not matter much? Maybe I misread it, but to me, macro-work is seldom at wide apertures, and I grab any millimeter of depth of field I get. Trying to get all of the frame in focus (without a tilt-lens) is just not going to happen.

Hey Wouter,

You are right about the hyperfocal distance (HFD).  At 1.4 on a 50mm lens, it is negligible. I remember when I shot this image, I angled the set up to account for f/2.8 HFD, but ended up bringing it in to 1.4...so, this statement continues to stick in my mind.  I always bring my chart to the field and rarely use it since I can usually get pretty close.  The white / green...yeah, the white is distracting...probably could PS it out, but the green artifacts is CA and not the result of oversharpenng.  I appreciate your input, as this one is not going to print.  I have several others I consider candidates for print, but been very busy this fall shooting the bike racing stuff for various media...:-)  Later!

Dejan

Very nice Dejan. Good detail and color and I like how the water droplets magnify whats underneath.

Fred

I like it♥♥♥

The water droplets on the lower three leaves are great, as are the light and color.  I agree with Wouter regarding the bright white areas above.  If you had just the three leaves and nothing else (including the object in the lower right corner), I think this would be terrific.