Guava flower

[Reef Bass]

Not a nut, I know. Becomes a fruit when pollinated.

Nice bokeh for f8. I am pleased with the overall exposure, though the white part of the flower where the stamens emerge being highlighted by the sun is blown on the left and right. I don't wish to reduce overall exposure any further. Any suggestions for handling that? I bumped highlights down a tad and whites up a bit less. I suppose I could select that area in Photoshop and apply some brightness reduction to it but I'm not sure I care THAT much...

 

[Misled]

Personally, I like it as it is. I imagine when you took the highlights down you went further, but it prolly messed up the stamens, which is what I like. Beautiful bokeh as you say. What kind of distance from the flower and what lens?

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks. I appreciate the input. The situation overall feels similar to me when bright acro tips blow out trying to get sufficient exposure elsewhere. I also enjoy the glow of the stamen. Backlighting can be powerful.

The 100mm macro lens was about 8-10 inches away from the flower, which was fortunately located on a low hanging branch with several feet of space between it and other flowers and foliage on the same tree. Good subject and background separation physically and visually.

 

[Misled]

So how many shots did you take? I like the bud, but would have also moved a little left and took one with just the flower. Looks like that's where the sun was but I would have tried a few other positions also. Just trying to figure out how others shoot.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yeah I took about 80 shots over 30-40 minutes. 30 of those got imported into LR. I was moving the tripod left and right and up and down. The sun was also moving, and its light being filtered by the guava and other trees, so it was more difficult to get the majority of stamens backlit than it might appear. Plus it was breezy, so the branch was moving back and forth beaucoup. There was a lot of patience involved waiting for the breeze to subside and the branch to stop moving before clicking off a shot. That also meant a faster shutterspeed, which meant a higher ISO as I was trying to keep the aperture at at least f8 so most of the flower would be in focus.

The bud seemed omnipresent no matter where I moved, so I went with it. I also debated other flowers, particularly clusters, but had a hard time finding one with recently opened (fresh) blossoms that were reasonably accessible to me and my tripod. Maybe one day I'll try a monopod on a ladder.

In terms of image content, my #1 goal was to get lots of backlit stamens. #2 goal was positioning the highlights. Here are some other looks I didn't go with.

Same basic composition but no backlighting


Here's a vertical shot using a reflection for backlighting stamens versus direct sun.


Here's another horizontal as close as my macro lens would go, about 6". Too close, too center composed, and relatively lacking interesting reflections.