Hibiscus Cannabinus

[Ysarex]

Too busy with school to do much photography. Here's a fairly recent one I just got around to processing.

This variety of hibiscus gets its name from the shape of its leaves which are similar to another well know plant. For those of you who clicked on this because you saw the word "cannabinus," I'm pretty sure there is no chemical similarity between this plant and the one its name references.

Joe

 

[Warhorse]

Outstanding! The flower just jumps out you.

 

[amolitor]

I cannot feel the light in this at all. It seems to be directionless, which made the fact that the flower pops off the background so dramatically feel odd.

Beyond that it's a perfectly lovely flower, and fairly well presented.

It's not clear to me whether you're going for "pretty flower to decorate a wall" here, or something else, or if this is largely a technical exercise in color and detail. As a technical exercise it's superb.

 

[WesternGuy]

Very nice shot. The background on the lower left is a bit distracting, but not enough to detract from the overall image. Just something to think about for your next shots - your backgrounds - it is an area that I also have to work on.

WesternGuy

 

[Ysarex]

Thanks all -- glad you like it.

Andrew, I was out walking in the rain which would make the lighting very directionless -- I did apply a little burn on the foliage to help accentuate the flower. As for meaning, I was going for the paradox of evil in beauty. Although the flower is strikingly beautiful you'll notice it has 5 petals and five pistils in the shape of a pentagram and if you look at the center of the flower you can see the menacing face of a green-eyed demon.

Joe

 

[amolitor]

I figured the light WAS in fact fully directionless, yep. I think the burn on the foliage is graphically necessary, but damages the realism. Or something. The picture feels "wrong" because of it, but not wrong enough. It's a mild sort of uncanny valley, to me.

Uncanny valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Ysarex]

I figured the light WAS in fact fully directionless, yep. I think the burn on the foliage is graphically necessary, but damages the realism. Or something. The picture feels "wrong" because of it, but not wrong enough. It's a mild sort of uncanny valley, to me.

Uncanny valley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep, I completely get that -- kinda like most of Ansel Adams's photos when he got that red filter stuck on his lens.

Here's another example: a photo I took of the Ed Renshaw pushing up river at Clarksville. It likewise has an uncanny feel to it (especially for someone who lives here) because I "Ansel Adamized" the sky.



Here in the Midwest we only get maybe 10 or 20 days a year when the humidity drops enough to get that kind of definition in clouds in the sky. You'll also notice the clouds are a tad off in the distance as they appear too neutral in color when they should be picking up some atmospheric blue. What I did was pull the red channel from the photo (Ansel's red filter) and re-combined it with the sky via a luminosity blend so I have the color of the original photo but the luminosity of the red channel. It's not really real, but not really, and it really does look better than real which was really pretty blah.

Joe