aka Indian Tobacco - supposedly they smoked the leaves, but who knows? The root is fatal if eaten in quantity, but who knows what quantity. Still the flowers are lovely although tiny - less than 1 cm long. I was amazed to get both flowers in focus with one shot while waiting patiently for the breeze to die down. I like the two different positions and angles of the flowers so you can see them more fully. They’re super tiny and remind me of toadflax which is another wee wildflower often classified as a weed.
Specific Feedback Requested
The bottom far bud bothers me, but what can you do? I tried to find the best position for each flower and bud without totally screwing up the background.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Tripod and cable release to time the shot when the breeze died.
Lr processed for white balance adjustment and a vertical crop. Sharpening & nr, clarity & contrast. Green adjusted down in saturation, purple & blue adjusted up.
I’m not at all bothered by the spent blossom. It’s the reality of the plant and common succession of flowering for the whole genus. The process covers a longer time for pollinators to visit the plant.
I’m looking at your EXIF and wondering why you choose f5.0? Wouldn’t f8 give you a little more depth? It’s likely that the sweet spot of the Leica lens is closer to f8.
I think this is a lovely picture. Soft beautiful flowers, nice background. I’m not wild about the bottom bud either so I wanted to see what it would look like without it. Pretty easy removal in PS. I think your choice of settings was right on for this image.
Thanks guys - I originally set up to do some ‘manual’ focus bracketing and this is one of a few shots that I took with different focus points. Had to wait for the breeze to die so couldn’t really do a bracketing session because it didn’t stay down for long. So that’s why f/5. But as luck would have it I didn’t need to do any stacking because the two main blossoms are in focus. You are right about the lens’s sweet spot, but given the background, I couldn’t stop down more and have it be this smooth.
I think it’s a beautiful image, Kristen. I’m not bothered by the bottom bud, though I do also like Keith’s version with it removed. The background is very nice. I wish the brighter spot on the lower left edge could be darkened a bit, though. Overall I think it’s a gorgeous shot - nice job!
