Leaf Me Alone

[Rob MacKillop]

Sorry for the title...

Leaf_x1k by RobMacKillop, on Flickr
​

I had a nice time in the botanics today, which I pass through to get to the framer I use for my photos. He does a fantastic job for £20 - really professional looking. In the gardens I struck up a conversation with a seasoned twitcher - bird watcher - who had a very nice pair of Leica binocs. Within five minutes he pointed out no fewer that sixteen (sixteen!) species of bird, where I hardly saw any. He literally opened my eyes to what bird life was around me. Amazing. They were all too far away to get any decent shots from my 18-55 lens, but I could see why folk get into this sort of thing. He amused me by saying he was annoyed at photographers - who spend more time trying to get a perfect image, and less time just experiencing what was around them. I left my camera in my back pack...

 

[Pete Askew]

Lovely Rob and I like the soft light. Nice story too.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Hmm, looking again, there is some dead space to the left - might crop it...

 

[Keith Hollister]

I wouldn't crop it myself - the space kinda emphasizes the solitude of the single leaf.

Personally, I would dial back the saturation a bit and possibly bring the black level up a bit. The darkness and saturation tends to obscure the detail in the leaf. I like the overall look you are going for, but I would turn it down to about 9 instead of 11 (Spinal Tap reference).

I like the composition and the light - there's a very nice photograph in there

 

[Paul Lange]

I wouldn't crop it myself - the space kinda emphasizes the solitude of the single leaf.

Personally, I would dial back the saturation a bit and possibly bring the black level up a bit. The darkness and saturation tends to obscure the detail in the leaf. I like the overall look you are going for, but I would turn it down to about 9 instead of 11 (Spinal Tap reference).

I like the composition and the light - there's a very nice photograph in there

Well Lightroom goes up to 50 but my Lightroom goes up to 51!

My thought was that if you had to crop it I would take a bit off the RHS so that the branch goes off the edge of the frame? Love the colours.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, Keith. Much appreciated. I've been playing with it (rarely a good thing!)

Thanks Paul...

Leaf_x1kd by RobMacKillop, on Flickr​

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Love the richness of the colours and the blur. I do myself prefer the second, not for the frame, for the backing off ,of the clarity and luminance works well.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, Julian. I quite like the new version myself.

 

[Pete Askew]

I like the effect in the second but not the frame Rob.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Fair enough, Pete. Appreciated.