Clinging to Life &RP

I like what you are trying to achieve here. There is a strange halo around the rocks, probably caused by selecting just the rocks and making adjustments. Something about this makes me think of a miniature scene, probably the low perspective and blurred background.

Yup Rob, there's no mask in this image so that odd halo is totally a function of the shallow DOF or some other quality of physics I don't comprehend. There are no local adjustment tools in Lightroom (ND filter, brushes, etc.) used here, just pretty straight global adjustments. Any physicists or photographers out there who can explain this? I don't like the halos, but can't figure out how they got there so don't know how to lose them. Pretty sure the rocks didn't move either. I just looked at a duplicate, unprocessed image taken at the same time and it has the same shadow around the rocks - and again that one is totally unprocessed. Now my curiosity is piqued.

Love the bush but the oof bg is disturbing.

Interesting that the bokeh of the lens isn't better in this. f4 should have been wide open enough to produce a pleasing result, but the backround isn't. It's at that in between focus place that makes for a distraction. I do like the concept and emphasis on the bush.

I really like the idea, and image, except for the interesting halos and such in the bg. The rest of the editing looks really well, IMO. Very cool rocks...

The bush makes for an interesting subject, but I find myself wishing the BG was a little more OOF to place more of an emphasis on the bush. Just my opinion of course.

Ed

I like the shallow DOF here as it really helps draw my attention on the tree. I also like the composition. I noticed the halo before reading others' comments. I agree that it is distracting, but don't have any great ideas for dealing with it.

Really like the color and comp Russ, but I do find the bg distracting, anyway, really like the scene, and I'm sure you will figure out the halo problem.
John

Russell,

Great job isolating this little scrub of a bush. I find the light on the bush and foreground to be unique, and to me, very much like the light in Harley's recent post. The quality of light is just somehow different, like studio or museum lighting; not sure how to explain it, but I like it.

Effective use of selective focus and depth of field. However, I'm just not sold on it, and here's why. To me the bg almost looks processed, like with a gaus blur, rather than an optical effect using a lens wide open. Also, it seems that there is no gradual reduction in focus, there's just two zones, the bush/foreground, and the blurry bg. And as out of focus as the bg is, I almost would expect some oof areas in the immediate foreground before the bush, like in the lower corners. Lastly, shooting at f/4 would of course naturally have a very narrow plane of focus - so much so that I can't imagine getting the entire bush in focus, especially at this close range; yet every branch seems to be in sharp focus. Anyway, don't want to belabor this, just my .02 and observation.

Don't get me wrong, I like this and the selective focus is excellent in showcasing and isolating this little bush, AND does tell a great nature story; tenacious is a good description.

Lon

Thanks guys. This image turned out to be a real curiosity. There may be several things working here, all to degrade what I intended. I have contacted Nikon to see if they have any explanation for that strange halo. It was definitely more evident after compression and posting. My best guess is that the polarizer contributed to this effect. I think the halo is imbedded in the capture, but processing sure makes it more pronounced. All other info came from the metadata. The originally posted image was processed in Lightroom 4, so I don't know how it applies sharpening processes. But it is what it is. Here is the image without any Lightroom changes applied. Curious, huh?