Bee Balm

Gallery: FloraPosted July 21, 201393 views5 comments

Bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) is a very common native wildflower that is in bloom right now. I was able to isolate this flower by taking 8 images at f6.3 and stack them with Zerene Stacker. I'm slowly getting the hang of the program, but it seems to work very well with wildflowers. (K5 IIs, 300mm DA* f4, natural light f6.3, 1/60th sec, iso 400................Jim

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Bob&Charly Nelson on July 21, 2013 at 2:49 PM

great isolation and detail Jim. Well seen and displayed.
Bob

Registered on October 27, 2005, 289 Posts, 4202 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on July 21, 2013 at 5:04 PM

The purple goes so well against all that green. Nice comp, too.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on July 21, 2013 at 7:06 PM

Jim - Well stacked even though there are many artifacts around the leaves and the petals. From my experience a bit of work is needed in cleaning up after the stacking program runs.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on July 23, 2013 at 6:15 PM

I can see artifacts, too, Jim, particularly around the top of the flower. So, the stacking programs aren't as automatic as I was imagining! Some of those tiny details would be hard not to wipe out-- must be a trick for it...
As to the image itself, I think you captured the delicate color very well. It's a great floral portrait.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on July 23, 2013 at 9:41 PM

Thank you all for the comments. I'm going to re-post this image as I tackled most of the artifacts (6 attempts at different files). It was a very challenging flower to work out the bugs.............................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments