The 100mm macro on the 5D really yields some silky soft backgrounds. I haven't done much black and white processing with my macros, so here is a start.
UPDATE: At the suggestion of Albedo, I have applied some luminance noise reduction (100% in ACR4/CS3). Here is the original image. As can be seen, there is a slight increase in the softness in the lower right portion of the image. The 5D has exceptional low-noise performance, and even though the noise itself is a direct result of the a higher ISO, the real culprit here is high contrast in post-processing. I have had ISO-100 images with more apparent noise than this one.
categories: flora macro monochrome nature
October 27th, 2007 at 3:35 AM
It's lovely, especially in B&W. The focus is on the right part, as is the DOF :)
October 27th, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Nice shot ! You should start playing more with B&W macros ! ;)
That's a pity though you had to turn the ISO up like this, the shot would have been even more powerful with less noise. Did you try to apply a noise reduction filter on the background ?
October 27th, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Many thanks for the input, Albedo. As I'm sure you saw from the exif, I pretty much had to shoot at ISO-640 if I had any hopes of a clear image at 100mm. I didn't apply any noise reduction to the original image as I usually don't unless the noise is very severe. The 5D actually has extremely low noise performance and the main reason any noise is apparent on this photograph is because of it's unusually high contrast in post-processing.
I have posted the update image.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:42 PM
They're both very pretty. You know that old song about overlooking an Orchid while searching for a Rose? I toggled back and forth and...:)