Redbud Tree

[Ken Curtis]

I visited Chanticleer Gardens (Wayne, PA, USA) last weekend and captured this image of a redbud tree. I used focus stacking to keep the buds sharp. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

[anthonymagister]

I have always loved redbud trees. We have dozens of them in my own backyard. They are great this time of year. As far as improving the image, I might suggest a few small things. The sticks in the background are a bit distracting. This can be fixed by cloning them out or maybe using a smaller aperture to add more blur. The other think is the light is a bit dull. May it was taken on a overcast day? Try taking the same picture at different times of the day to see if it makes a difference. Good luck.

[NorthernFocus]

I love redbuds and miss them. This does seem a bit dark and flat. Looks like you were shooting in the shade with a bright BG so the meter underexposed the flowers due to the backlighting. Recommend increasing the bightness and maybe contrast as well.

[AB26]

Hi Ken,
I would suggest getting in much closer as to show more detail in the buds to the viewer.
Try manual WB under lighting conditions like that. What I have found is much better colour rendition when using manual WB. Experiment with it and see what you get from it.

[Geoff F]

I think cropping tighter would reduce some of the subject confusion and produce a 'cleaner' result.

Possibly crop away some of the right side so that branch starts at the top left and leaves the frame before any of the branching on the right.

This will mean a different crop ratio. If required, you could probably lose a little from the bottom as well.

The background at the top is a little distracting but probably difficult to alter. I did consider a crop from the top to reduce this but I think it would lose too much from the top left corner.

[Ken Curtis]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.