Pear Blossoms

[adamhiram]

Each spring, the flowering pear trees in my yard explode with white blossoms for about a week. The saplings were small enough to fit in the back seat of my car 8 years ago, and now they are about 30' tall. Each year I try to take a slightly different photo of the flowers. This year, I brought a softbox out into the yard and overpowered the sun to create a black background.

Nikon D500 with 85mm f/1.8 lens and 12mm extension tube for closer focusing distance
85mm, ISO 50 (simulated), f/11, 1/250s
Softbox above and camera right, feathered to avoid light spill on anything behind it.
Processed in LR with some light editing in PS for a pure black background.


20190411-DSC_1947a by adamhiram, on Flickr

 

[smoke665]

Very Nice! I have a few Apple blossoms just starting. That little touch of pink on the stamen in the front flower locks focus like magnet. Well done.

 

[Jeff15]

Lovely image........

 

[Designer]

Thank you! I especially appreciate the details of how you made the shot.

 

[jcdeboever]

Wonderful image. Man, it screams square crop, print, double mat, frame, and hang on wall to me.

This is also a great example of the advantage of using strobe / flash for increased color saturation, clarity, and making an image as opposed to taking one.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Beautifully done. I appreciate you telling how you did it as well.

 

[Derrel]

Wonderful image. Man, it screams square crop, print, double mat, frame, and hang on wall to me.

This is also a great example of the advantage of using strobe / flash for increased color saturation, clarity, and making an image as opposed to taking one.

Much agreement here, on multiple points!

 

[adamhiram]

Thank you for the kind words! I didn't expect this much feedback on a picture of flowers, but it is definitely appreciated.

Some additional information - I wanted to try to get more in focus, but didn't care for the results, so this is the shot I went with.

• Focus stacking wasn't really an option, since this is a "live" subject subject that moves in the wind
• I took another shot at f/16, the smallest aperture this lens (85mm f/1.8) is capable of, but it just looked softer without a significant increase in depth of field
• I took another shot with another lens that is softer but can go all the way down to f/40 (AFS- 70-300 f/4.5-5.6). At 200mm and f/32, I was able to get everything in sharp focus, but the overall sharpness and contrast were lacking, and the perspective was a bit different at this focal length.

Thanks again for the feedback!

 

[DSP121]

This flower is so beautiful. I have never seen this before! Thank you so much for sharing a pic of such a lovely flower!