Cyclamen

[Akira]

Nikkor-O 55/1.2 at f1.4 on Olympus E-M5 Mk II.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Deliciously soft and enjoyable. The colour contrast to the background works really swell.

[Mike G]

Nice reds Akira, my preference would be for sharper petals, but thats just me!

[Akira]

Deliciously soft and enjoyable. The colour contrast to the background works really swell.

Thanks, Bjørn.  As you would notice, I used the white and purple cyclamen as the background.  I think the lighting helped somewhat...

Nice reds Akira, my preference would be for sharper petals, but thats just me!

Mike, thanks.  I think cyclamen is a tricky flower to render sharply.  Stopping down would make the background too busy.  Softer rendition could "suggest" the depth of field better in this case.  Otherwise the focus stacking a la Michael E would be needed.

[Michael Erlewine]

The Cyclamen is one of the most photogenic flowers IMO, along with the Calla Lily. I like to have a part of the flower in sharp focus and the rest gone to bokeh. Not sure which lens this is, but probably the same one Akira is using, the CRT-Nikkor.

[Mike G]

I find flower reds particularly difficult to get right, and outside my backdoor is a red rose which defies me every time I try to get the reds to my liking!

I have lived in my house since 1972 and a rose bush was there when we moved in, it has flowered abundantly every year since, I reckon it will see me to my grave. 

[Akira]

The Cyclamen is one of the most photogenic flowers IMO, along with the Calla Lily. I like to have a part of the flower in sharp focus and the rest gone to bokeh. Not sure which lens this is, but probably the same one Akira is using, the CRT-Nikkor.

Michael, this is one of your classic images.  Until you shared the images like this, I was not aware of the entire part of this well-konwn but somewhat enigmatic flower.  The CRT Nikkor fascinates me on any cameras it is attached to.

I find flower reds particularly difficult to get right, and outside my backdoor is a red rose which defies me every time I try to the reds to my liking!

Yes, indeed.  I would suspect that the red channel tends to be over-saturated too easily.