Flower Macro

[depthcharge101]

Started doing some flower macro work now that spring is around. Must confess it is quite new to me and I am still working out how to post-process these beautiful cherry blossoms. I find that low shadow/dark contrast and low clarity in Lightroom seems to work quite well; comments and critiques welcome!

Pictures are all taken with Fuji XF 35mm (crop factor 1.5) lens on X-E2.

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[Barbara Ponder]

Lovely images and beautiful composition.

[Texas Dave]

Nicely done!

[marlunn]

look good to me

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Ziggy]

Looks like a very good start to me.

Jim

[deetheturk]

Lovely series, well done!

[Stagecoach]

Good start, I like your PP on these retaining them looking so natural.

[IzzieK]

Very nice series...

[Dave Humphries]

HI JHL,

A warm welcome to the CiC forums from me.

When presenting a series for critique, you'll help others (to help you) if you number the shots for ease of reference - I have done that for you this time. Note that otherwise, you'll tend to just attract a lot of comments on the series, not individual thoughts.

That said - they ARE a good series!
So do bear that in mind when I make the minor points below.

1 - A very nice image which says "sunny orchard" to me, good white balance - if mine, I would remove 5% off top and left edges and assess the black point, which is 30 (of 255), so the image lacks contrast - however, I accept this might be deliberate and contributory to the bright "sunny orchard" feeling the image imparts, so it would be a case of 'check before doing'

2 - I find a stronger composition in removing 10% off lower edge and 5% off right hand side - you may disagree

3 - I find the darker left hand side just a tad too overpowering, so I'd try removing 10% off the LHS - good exposure

4 - I find myself wanting to see the tips of the two leaves exiting bottom of frame. I also find the contrasty, sharp area top right fights my attention away from the subject - if mine, I'd consider running a significant blur brush over that area top right and also reduce it's brightness and contrast

5 - Again I might crop this a little tighter; 10% off RHS, 10% off lower edge and 5% off LHS.

Please remember - those are minor things in an otherwise very good series; focus, DoF, exposure and white balance are all perfectly acceptable and the things I have mentioned others may not agree with


One last observation: You have linked these from full resolution images hosted on your site, these take a longer time to open for people on low bandwidth connections, are bigger than anyone can see on screen at 100%, so consequently everyone is viewing a browser reduced size image - which will be sub-optimal for sharpness (compared to my recommended method in post #6 in this thread HELP THREAD: How can I post images here?


One last (last) thing - could you do me a favour please?
Could you click Settings (right at the top),
then Edit Profile (on left)
and put your first name in the Real Name field?
this helps everyone give you more personal and relevant answers - thanks in advance.

Cheers, Dave

[depthcharge101]

Thanks very much for all the tips/feedback Dave, really appreciate them!

I agree with most of the points you have for the pictures actually; I haven't actually given that deep of a thought to these pictures but I think I should. Another thing I thought I should mention is that some of these pictures were also PP'd to have a "high key" low contrast feel to them. It's not a style that I've worked on before so it's all pretty new to me. The feedbacks seem positive though so it's encouraging.

Back to shooting more flowers

[Geoff F]

Firstly, flowers are very difficult to photograph well.

You have background problems will all of these shots. Very bright backgrounds are distracting but they can be difficult to avoid. Bright sunshine causes extra problems with this and gives other exposure problems. Lightly overcast skies or using some form of light shadow creating objects often work best; but watch your shutter speeds.

Cropping tighter can remove a lot of background issues.

Selectively editing out (toning down) bright spots is frequently needed. Much easier to do with layers and masks but otherwise try adjustment brushes.

Getting everything in focus, but not too much background, is another taxing problem. Narrow apertures, carefully chosen, can help but a merge of two or more different focus points is often necessary. Not easy to achieve when your subject is blowing about in the breeze. Alternatively focus tighter and just concentrate on what can be included in your available focus range.

[Dave Humphries]

~ Another thing I thought I should mention is that some of these pictures were also PP'd to have a "high key" low contrast feel to them. It's not a style that I've worked on before so it's all pretty new to me. The feedbacks seem positive though so it's encouraging.

Hi JeyHan,

Oooh, that's dangerous talk

I'll just say that (for me) "high key" is more about the subject and lighting - it isn't something you can apply in PP unless the subject and lighting is sympathetic to it. In these, I would say that is not the case.

It also is not "low contrast", instead I'd suggest that it does need a full tonal range, just that the bit that's dark has a very small percentage area relative to the entire image.

Thanks very much for all the tips/feedback Dave, really appreciate them!

Glad I could help, Dave