Lone Leaf

[Round Tuit]

As I was BBQing lunch the other day at -10°C(14°F), I spotted the last leaf that still clung to a French lilac in my backyard. The leaf almost looked as if it were made of leather and the low angle of the sun brought out the texture of the leaf rather nicely.I would welcomed any C & C that you can provide as this is my first spontaneous shot in several months. I am hoping that this marks the re-kindling of my passion for this great hobby.



André

[Shadowman]

The attempt doesn't hurt your re-kindling, nice background bokeh. A bit too centered and I think you could lose a bit of the stem and maintain the effect with the background stem.

[Geoff F]

Yes I agree. Cropping the right side to produce a 4 x 5 ratio image has more impact for me.

[Round Tuit]

Thank you John and Geoff.
I agree that the square framing doesn't work well for this shot. I had tried both horizontal and vertical framing without success. The vertical 4 x 5 format works much better but it still looks somewhat unbalanced to me. Maybe I needed something on the left of the leaf.



John, the quality of the bokeh is due to the background being at least 20 ft from the leaf and therefore way out of focus. The lens that I used is an inexpensive Canon EF-S 55-250mm.

André

[Manfred M]

I see a lot of reflection from that leaf. I will often use a polarizer on a shot like this just to reduce the reflection, which in turn increases contrast.

[Round Tuit]

I see a lot of reflection from that leaf. I will often use a polarizer on a shot like this just to reduce the reflection, which in turn increases contrast.

I did use my cpl adjusted for maximum effect and the sun was almost exactly at 90 degrees to my left.
This is a SOOC of the shot without the cpl.



Thanks for commenting.

[Manfred M]

I did use my cpl adjusted for maximum effect and the sun was almost exactly at 90 degrees to my left.
This is a SOOC of the shot without the cpl.



Thanks for commenting.

The 90 degree issue with a polarizer is related to darkening the sky only.

When dealing with reflection, the position, shape and reflectivity of the subject come into play and as you have pointed out, you've aleady cut the reflections. Different brands / models of polarizers seem to work differently. Some seem to be designed to minimize light loss, which impacts the amount of reflection that they remove, while others are more brute force and cut the light (and reflections) more sigificantly. I shoot both B+W and Tiffen polarizers and both produce slightly different results in the same lighting conditions.

[Round Tuit]

The 90 degree issue with a polarizer is related to darkening the sky only.

When dealing with reflection, the position, shape and reflectivity of the subject come into play and as you have pointed out, you've aleady cut the reflections. Different brands / models of polarizers seem to work differently. Some seem to be designed to minimize light loss, which impacts the amount of reflection that they remove, while others are more brute force and cut the light (and reflections) more sigificantly. I shoot both B+W and Tiffen polarizers and both produce slightly different results in the same lighting conditions.

Thanks Manfred. Good information to know. My filters are Hoya and I doubt that they are of a high quality since I got a set containing a ND8,a UV and the CPL all for around $50 when Blacks went out of business.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. Good information to know. My filters are Hoya and I doubt that they are of a high quality since I got a set containing a ND8,a UV and the CPL all for around $50 when Blacks went out of business.

Like with many manufacturers have different quality lines, so the filters you bought may or may not have been higher end. That being said, Hoya is the worlds largest producer of optical glass, so their glass ends up in a lot of filters from reputable third party manufacturers.

[Wavelength]

Masterly, especially after crop

[Round Tuit]

Masterly, especially after crop

Thank you Nandakumar.

[selig1656]

Great details are there in the leaf , the background is terrific . the adjustments do help to keep the focus on the leaf . nice work .

[Round Tuit]

Great details are there in the leaf , the background is terrific . the adjustments do help to keep the focus on the leaf . nice work .

Thank you Raymond for the positive critique.