Bradford Pear Blooms

[PRSearls]

Here is a two-shot, stacked-focused image of these delicate, white blossoms. Taken indoors with a single, small soft box, white reflectors and black background. This is about as close to B&W as I get these days. It might be a good subject when I get a copy of Silver EFEX Pro 2.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 180mm f/3.5L Macro, 1/160 sec @ f/22. The brightness of my studio strobe/soft box and it's positioning to the subject required this exposure.

[Kaclarity]

Paul
Nice capture. To my eye the green leaves compete for the focal point of the shot. Have you had time to play with it in PS possibly removing the green and the stem. Just a thought, keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing more of your work JimC

[Tony M]

Hi Paul,

I left your photo on the computer monitor for a while just so I could admire it. With Spring upon us in the northern hemisphere, the flowers are out, and I'm looking forward to photographing them. This is just the type of photo I've been contemplating attempting: a dark background with a well-lit subject. I'll add stack-focused to it, which I've never heard of before.

To me, the greenery adds to the image; in fact, I wish the leaf were entirely green, without the brown edge. It does indeed compete for attention, and so my eyes rover over the entire image more than usual, always returning to it.

I look forward to more.

Tony

[Donald]

Sublime, Paul.

Not a lot more to say.

[rpcrowe]

I like everything about it.

I have peach blooms and nectarine tree blooms to admire but, my favorites, the apricot blooms came too early due to a spell of unusually warm weather and were stripped from the trees by a hail storm. Looks like no apricot jam for Richard this year!

[PRSearls]

Thank you for your kind comments and suggestions. The green leaves are a natural development at this stage. I see your point about it competing with the blossoms. Frankly, it had not occurred to me to remove it. I could correct the brown edges; this was an oversight on my part. It's important to get another set of eyes to critique one's efforts or else put it away for a week or so. When you look at it with "fresh" eyes (and mind) some of its weakness will be more apparent.