Morning, Noon and Night...

[Remorhaz]

Sometimes also called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - we have one of these bushes in our back yard and it is in full bloom now with hundreds of pretty little purple and mauve flowers covering the whole plant.

I was originally intending on shooting this out in the yard however there was just too much of a gusty breeze happening, blowing the flower all over the place. I picked a likely looking specimen and brought it inside. I still wanted a nice green background so I improvised - note my daughters mermaid dress up costume coming in very handy here . I setup at a window facing the late afternoon sun to more to top and backlight my subject. For most of the stacks I took I also put up a large tri grip diffuser against the window to soften the light for more of a subject glow.

The result of 34 images [1/125sec at f/5.6 and ISO 200 with the Nikon 105VR on Nikon D600] focus stacked


Here is one without the diffuser for both a harder more directional light on the subject and with the brighter light an effectively darker background

The result of 44 images [1/160sec at f/5.6 and ISO 100 with the Nikon 105VR on Nikon D600] focus stacked


Comments/Feedback/Critique on composition and setup sought...

[aim54x]

stunning detail in these...the light in #2 is a tad too harsh for my liking though.

[Matt. K]

Rodney
That beautiful green leaf in the first image would make a lovely study without the flower. There is something very classical about it...like an illustration out of an old botanical text.

[biggerry]

Rodney, the colours, however natural they maybe seem gaudy to me, maybe its just the green BG that contributes to it..actually, i think its just the colour of teh flower and the BG. As Matt has noted, the study of the leaves would look awesome and it appears the colours and tones woudl be complimentary.

The second does little for me, compositionally, lighting and colourwise.

[Remorhaz]

Thanks everyone for their honest and frank assessment

stunning detail in these...the light in #2 is a tad too harsh for my liking though.

Yep - I actually took that one set first and then put up the diffuser for the rst since the light looked harsh - that hard light does however create more shadows and more of a 3D feel so I figured I'd stack and see

Rodney - That beautiful green leaf in the first image would make a lovely study without the flower. There is something very classical about it...like an illustration out of an old botanical text.

Rodney, the colours, however natural they maybe seem gaudy to me, maybe its just the green BG that contributes to it..actually, i think its just the colour of teh flower and the BG. As Matt has noted, the study of the leaves would look awesome and it appears the colours and tones woudl be complimentary. The second does little for me, compositionally, lighting and colourwise.

Thanks Matt & Gerry - the colours are pretty full on - and the green background ended up "brighter" than I was anticipating (I was hoping for a darker grass green). The flower is this colour tho

One leaf study coming up - this was from one of the other stacks and I cropped in a bit and it was off with the edge of the flower with a little content aware filling

[biggerry]

One leaf study coming up - this was from one of the other stacks and I cropped in a bit and it was off with the edge of the flower with a little content aware filling

I like that better, the colour is not my cup of tea, but it is certainly better

Thanks everyone for their honest and frank assessment

well I was gonna say "Suren-it" but...