It's Addicting

I keep finding more interesting combinations of textures and blending modes to use with those Pink Pom Poms whose real name is Pink Mimosa (Mimosa borealis). The tiny leaves did remind me of a Mimosa tree, so the name certainly fits.  Or isn't there a drink called the Mimosoa?  Maybe that is where the name came from and you feel all pink and fluffy after drinking it. Well, I thought it might be helpful to see the layers I combined as well as the final result.

The first image is 3 stacked images for a little more depth of field.  I still like the edges blurry, so did not mask in the sharp layer there:

Nikon D700, 60mm macro lens 

with Hoya closeup filters at f2.8 and 1/1500th, ISO 400

The next image is another one of mine, an accident that resulted in something circular out of focus in a green frame.  It is from quite a while back and I don't remember what it was, but saved it in my texture file because I knew I would use it someday:

The next layer is a purchased texture from Florabella, the Allure square.  

I added a Hue/Sat layer to make the edges darker green because

without that adjustment the edges were neon green:

And the final result, with the Florabella texture in Divide blending mode:

It's kind of like caffeine --- a little jolting, but cheerful.

Pink Pom Pom

 

Nikon D700, 60mm macro lens with +2 or +4 Hoya closeup filter at f4.8 and 1/500th, 

ISO 200, 2 exposures combined for more depth of field

Another tiny wildflower from my subdivision pond area.  Although they are only about 2 inches tall, these hot pink little spikes really stand out in the green St. Augustine grass and I finally got around to taking my macro lens and close up filters to try to capture them.  The first image shows the runner by which they spread, and the tiny fern-like leaves.  In that image though I combined 2 exposures for more depth of field, I still was not able to get the outer edge or the tiny hairs on the stem in focus.  The image below was more successful, don't ask me why.  By carefully masking or revealing different areas I was able to show pretty much of the structure of this botanical pink explosion.  For the last image I stacked 2 closeup filters, the +4 and the +2, but I think I may have only used one on the top image.

Nikon D700, 60mm macro lens with +2 and +4 Hoya closeup filter, f9.5 and 1/180th, 

ISO 400, 2 exposures combined for more depth of field