This Here is Dead

I was inspired by Anne Belmont’s recent article on Winter Macro photography. This is a dead flower in a field by my house

Specific Feedback Requested

Is it a good image (reality check) any advice on how to improve

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Taken with Fuji X-T30 with 80mm f/2.8 macro lens

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I think it is a good image so I brought it into Ps and was surprised at how different it looked there compared to on this site. It looked dark and very pink so I made some changes. I hope you don’t mind -

An exposure layer to bring that up overall, a color balance layer to shift to cyan, yellow & green slightly, curves layer to separate fg from bg and deepen shadows. I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but the details seemed good so I didn’t add sharpness.

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Shawn, I was also inspired by Anne’ recent article, but not enough to give it a try, evidently. Now I have cleaned the dead flowers out of our garden. Next year, maybe.

It is a good image. I like it as presented (dark, since it is dead, but also I like the changes that Kristen made. It is like two different images, to me. So it kind of goes with what you, as the photographer likes best. Now you have challenged me as well as Anne Belmont. Hope I remember to take advantage of it when the time comes.

Shawn: Just goes to prove that pristine subjects are not required for a compelling image. I like the dark presentation as well and really like the details and textures visible in the largest version. Good find, capture and presentation. >=))> :+1: :+1:

Dead plant parts can look very good, Shawn. You’ve handled this view well with and I think it’s color looks right. I see bits here that look like this is a stack…especially the fast change in sharpness of the stem as you go from the frame corner to the middle of the stem and then back to reduced sharpness as the stem intersects the flower head. There’s also a bit of a halo around the flower, suggesting that you dodged the head, but that’s easy to fix by continuing your dodge into the background. In spite of those comments, this is a good looking picture.