Want critique Brachyscome Daisy

[Baenki]

So today I tried to use the focus bracketing of my camera. The following is a stack of 36 pictures of a Brachyscome daisy edited in Capture One and stacked and retouched in Affinity Photo. This is pretty much the first stack I've done where the object is reasonably sharp from front to back.

Setup was a black t-shirt as background and a white LED panel as light source.

 

[Chavezshutter]

Baenki Great photo, beautiful colours, very sharp and good lighting, good job

 

[Baenki]

Thank you. For the colors I found a neat trick which makes them more pleasing. I simplified them by selecting the purplish tones in the petals and moving them more into the magenta range, while moving the magentas slightly towards purple. Same with the yellows and oranges.

 

[Greg]

I really like colors on black background ! good job !

 

[Helix_2648]

The stack looks really good for the first try. Some minor layer errors are visible but that's doesn't have an impact to the quality.



Give it a try to change the level a bit to get a black background and check the dodge & burn technique to get a more plastic 3D look by increasing partly the shadows or the highlights.

 

[Baenki]

Helix_2648 Thank you for the critique. I tried to paint out the halos, seems like I missed a few spots. The front petal covering the yellow part is actually almost completely layered manually because Affinity had huge problems stacking it.

Dodging and burning I did in the center but not on the petals. How do you do it? I always paint grayscale on a new layer and use soft light blending and opacity to get it to my liking. What method would you recommend?

 

[Yohanna_D]

really nice shot and the contrast is really good!

 

[Jack]

Hello Baenki , there is nothing wrong with photo as long is not zoomed in. But as Helix_2648 did, you can find some small spots , but as he stated it won’t affect the photo quality , as human eye won’t spot them. I really like the black background which you managed to achieve. I also like the balance between colours.

 

[Greg]

Helix_2648 has super power and see everything on stacking pictures lol

 

[Helix_2648]

Helix_2648 Thank you for the critique. I tried to paint out the halos, seems like I missed a few spots. The front petal covering the yellow part is actually almost completely layered manually because Affinity had huge problems stacking it.

Dodging and burning I did in the center but not on the petals. How do you do it? I always paint grayscale on a new layer and use soft light blending and opacity to get it to my liking. What method would you recommend?

Hi Baenki,

I made a tutoriual for this which you can find here:

Dodge & Burn

Hi all together, let me start with my first Photoshop tutorial about Dodge & Burn. Some of you might know this technique, but those from you who don't know it can read this tutorial to test it and maybe integrate it in your workflow. What is it about? Dodge & Burn can be used to force the...

macroderie.com

You can combine it with this tutorial:

Adjusting highlights / shadows and midtones with luminance masks

Hi all together, I would like to introduce you today in the world of luminance masks. Most of you might know normal masks in Photoshop to limit an effect of an (adjustment) layer on some areas of your picture, but we can do much more with it by using luminance masks. With this tutorial you...

macroderie.com

Create a mask with mid shadows or dark shadows for the dodge & burn layer. Give it a try.

By the way.. have you tried Zerene to stack the pictures? Or have a look to Helicon Focus Pro. I use it as well with great results.