This species is also known as Oregon White Oak and it is our only native oak. I got lucky on this one. I was trying to do stacks of the emerging leaves of one of our oaks in breezy conditions and it mellowed out just long enough to get this with no retouching required. For reference, my technique was to use continuous low speed shutter release and slowly move the focus. It’s chancy because you don’t quite know where the focus is, but it lets you get a stack very quickly.
I thought about tilting the image a bit-would that have improved the composition? This was shot pretty much straight down, so the orientation is arbitrary, do you think another would be better (there’s no more canvas on the left)? I think the two little black things sticking out the top are from an insect on the back, but I don’t know for sure. I left them there for fun.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
5DIII, 180 mm, f/3,5 macro, tripod, 8 images taken at f/20, 1/640, iso 1600, manual exposure, manual focus. Stacked in Helicon Focus, other processing in LR& PS CC. Cropped to 3634x2902. The original images were underexposed and I brought the stacked image up a stop and a half in LR.
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Dennis: Since I don’t stack I can’t comment on that but this looks pretty darn good to me. I like the subject and I think the stem enters the frame at enough of an angle to make it interesting. If it was strictly horizontal I think the comp would be pretty static but this works for me. Nicely done. >=))>
This is just beautiful, Dennis. All the little hairs on the leaves are so clear and sharp, and the new leaves are unfurling with such promise. Your technique worked very well, IMO. It would be fun to compare another POV, but this works very well as is.
Thanks, @Kathy_Barnhart. I took some side views of other clusters, but haven’t processed them yet to see how they worked. We’re in a two day weather system now, but hopefully they’ll still be attractive in a few days.
Dennis, I’ve been admiring (and occasionally shooting) young oak leaves. They are very dramatic, with lots of interesting shapes and colors. Your take here shows all of that off very well. I don’t seen any stacking artifacts while the details and colors in this cluster of young leaves look great. There are two little dots in the upper left that may be bad pixels in your camera. The two black antennae are good for a big grin.
I love shots like this, Dennis, of stages in the life of plants that do not so often get photographed. The stack seems perfect to me, the textures of the leaves coming through strongly. Maybe a further tilt downwards might be worth a try, but personally I like this as is.
Good vision to see the pleasant features of the emerging leaf. The details in this image are amazing. My thoughts on the black dots… the wings of a wasp.
>=))>