Hibiscus

[Round Tuit]

This is a closeup of an hibiscus. I am at a loss on how to deal with the small green gap between two petals near the bottom and from the flare coming from it. Any suggestion will be welcomed.

[DanK]

Nice image.

Why not just clone it out? Here is a quick and dirty version using the remove tool and clone tool in photoshop:

[billtils]

+1 to what Dan says (pretty well all but the most basic editors have a remove or clone option)

[Round Tuit]

Thank you both.

Sometimes, I can miss the obvious.
My first attempt a cloning did not turn out too well and I completely forgot about the remove tool.

[DanK]

Years ago, when I first started flower photography, I submitted what I thought was a great image of a white orchid to a projected image competition. When my photo came up, the judge asked the room why he gave it a poor rating. A bunch of people immediately responded, "the black spot", a small area where the black background showed through.

[Jim A]

Yes, well the eye was certainly drawn to the white then the green ........... and back again.

[Manfred M]

Let me offer a slightly different approach on this image.

While I agree with the others, that the green spots are distracting, I find that eliminating them just accentuates the dark gray area that is quite featureless and isn't quite working for me. I would burn the large green area down and desaturate the green a bit, so that it breaks up the area without being distracting. I would also open up the shadows in that part of the shot, to move it more so that the textures are revealed. A bit of sharpening won't hurt either, I think.

[Round Tuit]

Let me offer a slightly different approach on this image.

While I agree with the others, that the green spots are distracting, I find that eliminating them just accentuates the dark gray area that is quite featureless and isn't quite working for me. I would burn the large green area down and desaturate the green a bit, so that it breaks up the area without being distracting. I would also open up the shadows in that part of the shot, to move it more so that the textures are revealed. A bit of sharpening won't hurt either, I think.

I much prefer this approach over the cloning/replacing. I was not satisfied with my first attempt at cloning because I could not find a way to handle the different direction of the structure of the petals on either side of the green opening. Subduing the green solves that problem and makes it possible to open up the shadows.

I had not considered sharpening the petals in order to keep the focus on the stamen and pistils. Doing so certainly creates a more dramatic image yet does not seem to detract the attention from the central subject.

I will explore taking the processing in this direction.

Thanks

[DanK]

I too prefer Manfred's approach. I was just giving the simplest approach.

Perhaps oversimplifying, there are two general approaches in close-up photography of flowers. One approach, which I usually follow, is to keep everything in sharp focus. This often requires focus stacking, and it requires fiddling with lighting to avoid overly deep shadows, sometimes letting backlighting shine through. The other is to pick one part of the image of particular interesting, put that in sharp focus, and let the rest be blurred and indistinct, which is what you were aiming for in the original. For a particularly extreme version of the latter, check out the macros of Olivia Parker.

Manfred's suggestion is to switch to the first approach. To do the latter effectively, as in the first image, requires that the out of focus areas are substantially out of focus. I don't think the original works too well for this approach. The red areas are still quite distinct, and the black area at the bottom pulls the eye. So the former approach seems better to me. Just IMHO.

[Round Tuit]

Thanks Dan,

To get the result that I really want, I would have had to do a focus stack.

As it is, the geometry of the flower makes it difficult to have a sharp background or to create a completely blurry background behind the stamen. The petals form a large fairly flat disk angled at 45° to the camera and the stamen sticks out at 90° from that disk. So the bottom of the background is lined up vertically with the tip of the stamen while the top is about 3 inches behind it.

Manfred did a credible job of sharpening the background but even at this fairly small size, the top is visibly softer than the bottom.

[DanK]

Andre,

Yes, I would have focus stacked, if this was done indoors. I don't find that much of an impediment at this point. With my 5D III and IV, I captured the stack by hand, even though I had software that would do it for me, but it became automatic and didn't take that long. With my R6 II, I am experimenting with letting the camera capture the stack, but I still do the compositing myself in Zerene. All in all, it takes some time, but it's not hard. The time required encourages me to play around more with lighting before I make up my mind. Often, I'll do a bunch of single shots first to decide on lighting, then do a stack.

If you haven't started doing this and are considering starting, I would urge you to look at Zerene for stacking. It's quite easy to use and provides a great deal of control, and it's reasonably fast. I can explain a bit more if you're interested.

Dan

[Round Tuit]

Andre,

Yes, I would have focus stacked, if this was done indoors. I don't find that much of an impediment at this point. With my 5D III and IV, I captured the stack by hand, even though I had software that would do it for me, but it became automatic and didn't take that long. With my R6 II, I am experimenting with letting the camera capture the stack, but I still do the compositing myself in Zerene. All in all, it takes some time, but it's not hard. The time required encourages me to play around more with lighting before I make up my mind. Often, I'll do a bunch of single shots first to decide on lighting, then do a stack.

If you haven't started doing this and are considering starting, I would urge you to look at Zerene for stacking. It's quite easy to use and provides a great deal of control, and it's reasonably fast. I can explain a bit more if you're interested.

Dan

I have been stacking for years. Most of the single flowers that I have posted here are stacks using the basic Zerene. I have a Canon 77D and I still use the 18-55 and 55-250 kit lenses that came with my original T3. Because these focus by extending the lens, I can't accurately focus manually. So I shoot tethered using Canon's EOS utility.

I would have stacked this one too but the light was changing too fast. My light source is a large window and the sky was too variable that day.

As you can see, GAS is not a problem that I have although it would be nice to get a decent macro lens.

[JerryDiaz]

This is a closeup of an hibiscus. I am at a loss on how to deal with the small green gap between two petals near the bottom and from the flare coming from it. Any suggestion will be welcomed.

Wow, I love it. Thanks for sharing it with us

[johnWix]

Great picture, but the gap. I don't care about the gap😊