Passiflora incarnata (passion flower, maypops)

Description:

This image was originally posted in the “Showcase,” and I decided to move it here for critique.

It’s an interesting plant with many relatives around the globe.

When we are in Maderia for the winter months, passionfruit is commonly sold at the markets, and the pulp is the flavoring for Poncha, a traditional drink of the island.

This image was made at Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens in situ.

Specific Feedback Requested:

All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)

DSLR, 100mm macro, f22. Lightbox with flash as the background. Flash next to the camera lens in front.

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1 Like

Another beauty!! The backlight through the leaves is wonderful and the detail on the complex flower superb! For me, the fading on the stem is a wonderful feature, but on this one it seems a bit more abrupt than I’m used to.

My visual weighting ESP wishes for a little more canvas on the right and correspondingly less on the left.

I find it fascinating to compare your flower photos with those of the stackers in this Network. Both methods work brilliantly. Yours presents the isolated beauty of flower and leaf - almost like the old pressed flowers people used to produce interleaved in books, but much more lively! Another great example here - your signature is cool too, by the way.

Hi Paul,

I like this one as presented. The flower is quite complex and you captured it very well. The one sepal at the top caught my eye wish that it had more edge definition on the left side (a very minor nit). It seems to melt into the BG. I especially like the details and color of the leaves–they frame the flower perfectly. Overall, an awesome image…Jim

Your flower portraits are always great, and this is no exception. The composition here is great with the three leaves as a backdrop. And the flower details are very interesting, it is fun to zoom in and investigate.

Another interesting post in this series. The flower itself is quite complex, even a bit busy looking. But I think this busy-ness is counter-balanced by the simplicity of the background and the leaves. I really love the way the backlit leaves look against the white background too. My only suggested tweak would be for having a slight bit more canvas on the right, similar in amount to the spacing at the top and bottom.

Thank you @Diane_Miller @Mike_Friel @Ola_Jovall @Jim_Zablotny @Ed_McGuirk. I always enjoy your comments and insights. They go beyond the simple :+1:, to careful attention to the technical aspects, and more importantly the graphic presentation.

@Jim_Zablotny You found the weak link in this image. The inner parts of the sepal are rendered as pure white (255 for each channel). If I pulled back on the white slider to get the sepal with some texture, the background also began to go below 255. I tried to get into that area to dodge a little, but it always ended up messing with the other parts of the flower. I pulled back on the white until the background texture got near the flower and that left just a few clumps of pixels in the sepal at 255. Then used the eraser in PhotoShop and fixed the background.

One of the first steps in post-processing in Lightroom is to click on the “blown out” triangle on the upper right of the histogram and make as much of the background as the red warning. Then go about with the other changes.

I wish there was a way to get the red warning in PhotoShop. I have to split the screen with Lightroom on one side and Photoshop on the other and erase to get the pure white by comparison.

@Mike_Friel I use stacking very occasionally, but it is a handy tool. So much of this project is photographed in the field that multiple exposures are difficult.

The signature is an amalgamation of initials. It’s patterned after a “chop” that is used by potters on the bottom of works, where there is little room.

Namaste. - to all of you.

1 Like

Paul: I really like what you’ve done with this. We have a very similar variety in our garden and this has been a good year for blooms. Your setup makes for excellent portraits and I appreciate the single capture results. Makes me want to play around with various BGs instead of always shooting them in the wild. Most excellent.>=))>

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Bill, thanks for the comments. I appreciate that. The plants that are available to me are growing on a chain link fence. Finding a bloom that I like, and it’s in a position that I can fit my light box far enough behind to avoid halos is difficult. I took cuttings and am growing my own plants and will be able to grow them in the best position for new images. We spend winter months on Maderia where passion fruits are grown for sale in markets. They are delicious!