starting work on #13....

divamum

It snowed this morning. I remembered the rosebud I'd shot a couple of weeks ago using my +3 closeup filter - which had turned out VERY diffuse! - and, given that the silly bush is STILL blooming like crazy (!??!!?), I thought I'd try again as soon I saw the white stuff falling. (I literally RAN outside with the camera in a ziplock bag!)

Too banal, or on the right track? Minimal pp, just to crop and boost it a bit.

pyroPrints.com

ordinarily i'd say sharpen up the bud a bit, but since it's supposed to be diffuse, perhaps it's fine the way it is =c)

richtersl

That's a lovely shot. I would try to crop some of the bottom so that the photo is more landscape-oriented than portrait-oriented. Doing that will take the eye to that rose bud.

divamum

Thanks. Still playing around with these - I'm happy to say that while I didn't take that *many*, most of them have something worth exploring, so I must be improving. However, it means it's taking me longer to work through them! Lol

Here's another in the series. Can't decide if I like the fact that it focused on the snow instead of the bud (note to self: spinning the wheel to change focal points is really tricky through a ziplock bag :giggle), but I do like the unexpected juxtaposition of diffuse *and* clarity. I think

richtersl

The texture of the freshly fallen snow is a delight to look at. The rose is just a little too diffuse for me -- I keep wishing that it was just a little more in focus.

divamum

richtersl wrote:

The texture of the freshly fallen snow is a delight to look at. The rose is just a little too diffuse for me -- I keep wishing that it was just a little more in focus.

Yeah, I know.I keep changing my mind on whether or not I like it lol

THere are a couple of others which I'm going to tweak. The diopter is a cool filter, but I DON'T like the degredation that comes with it, so I keep seeing things that need to be cleaned up. Plus, I find it impossible to figure out the DOF that comes with it. Shallow, yes, but not consistent even for things at the same distance (as you can see above).

Also, a question for Ye That Know: with this particular bloom, as soon as I play with curves or brightness the colour oversaturates and the details that ARE visible vanish. The whites look pretty good to me on this monitor, so I'm slightly puzzled. What's the best way/order/approach for working on an image which does that? Do I desaturate before adjusting curves etc, or... just wondering.

divamum

And here's this afternoon's effort.... a bit Hallmark card, perhaps, but any better on the "annoying oof areas" front? I think I might change the title to "Oxymoron", or something like that (clarity/diffused, smalll bud/snow etc etc)

Halite

divamum wrote:

Also, a question for Ye That Know: with this particular bloom, as soon as I play with curves or brightness the colour oversaturates and the details that ARE visible vanish. The whites look pretty good to me on this monitor, so I'm slightly puzzled. What's the best way/order/approach for working on an image which does that? Do I desaturate before adjusting curves etc, or... just wondering.

Are you shooting Raw? What software are you using?

In Photoshop you could convert the image to LAB mode and just apply your curves to the Lightness channel, since this does not touch color saturation at all.

divamum

Halite wrote:

Are you shooting Raw? What software are you using?

In Photoshop you could convert the image to LAB mode and just apply your curves to the Lightness channel, since this does not touch color saturation at all.

I'm a wimp and still shooting in jpg (I know, I know - get over it and start shooting RAW! I'll get there eventually....). I'm using CS3, Picasa and Lightroom. This was in CS3 that I noticed it on this occasion.

ic4u

divamum wrote:

I'm a wimp and still shooting in jpg

Ditto! Sad isn't it?

BTW..a little off topic...I've been meaning to tell you, I was in Baltimore a few weeks ago for a wedding, and there was an opera singer in the ceremony, thought of you immediately! You don't do weddings on the side do you?

P.S. I like your entry a lot, I am having a major block with this topic, I'm hoping it's just because I've been sick, and that something will come to me soon..time's ticking!

divamum

ic4u wrote:

divamum wrote:

there was an opera singer in the ceremony, thought of you immediately! You don't do weddings on the side do you?

Nope not me! I don't generally do weddings - nothing against it as such, but as a dramatic mezzo I don't really suit the "pretty pretty light and flloaty" type of music that is often requested for wedding so, except on occasion for friends, I don't usually do them....

Thanks for the kind words re the photo - I just got lucky that I was at home and could grab the camera during the 10 minutes of snow we got yesterday!

Halite

divamum wrote:

I'm a wimp and still shooting in jpg (I know, I know - get over it and start shooting RAW! I'll get there eventually....). I'm using CS3, Picasa and Lightroom. This was in CS3 that I noticed it on this occasion.

JPEG is going to have more issues once you need to do more than very basic adjustments. Still, you can convert the image to LAB mode to do any lightness or contrast adjustments in the Lightness channel and then convert right back to RGB mode. Just select Image/Mode/LAB in the menus, then Image/Mode/RGB when you're done with the curve adjustments. It's a worthwhile post-processing maneuver.

richtersl

If you need some tutorials -- this site will drive you crazy. :crazy But in a good way.

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/

divamum

Oooo.... thanks, both of you! That's great stuff.

Here's my final effort on this series. Do we like this one or the current entry better? I think the current one has clarity *and* diffused better, but then I just love the water drops and snowflakes on this one. Whadday'all think?



Current entry

ic4u

divamum wrote:

Oooo.... thanks, both of you! That's great stuff.

Here's my final effort on this series. Do we like this one or the current entry better? I think the current one has clarity *and* diffused better, but then I just love the water drops and snowflakes on this one. Whadday'all think?

I would stick with your current entry,
it is much stronger with the theme, IMO
Plus, I like the tighter crop

pyroPrints.com

ic4u wrote:

I would stick with your current entry,
it is much stronger with the theme, IMO
Plus, I like the tighter crop

richtersl

Current entry.

pyry

Here's something you'll hopefully love to know: I sort of discovered a new processing technique looking at these.

I thought your pictures were a little too far on the diffuse side, so I had an idea. Try this: put the camera securely on a tripod and take two pictures of the subject, one in perfect focus, one completely out of focus. Stack the two together and use the layer opacity for the mother of all soft focus effects.

Edit: Or re-shoot the current with a bud that's just opening. You are on to something there.

divamum

pyry wrote:

Here's something you'll hopefully love to know: I sort of discovered a new processing technique looking at these.

I thought your pictures were a little too far on the diffuse side, so I had an idea. Try this: put the camera securely on a tripod and take two pictures of the subject, one in perfect focus, one completely out of focus. Stack the two together and use the layer opacity for the mother of all soft focus effects.

Edit: Or re-shoot the current with a bud that's just opening. You are on to something there.

Thanks Pyry. Unfortunately, that snow was gone by the time I put the camera away and there's been none since so.... no way to reshoot!

However, I might keep playing around with some processing techniques... hmm.... ideas....wink

Thanks!

pyry

divamum wrote:

Thanks Pyry. Unfortunately, that snow was gone by the time I put the camera away and there's been none since so.... no way to reshoot!

However, I might keep playing around with some processing techniques... hmm.... ideas....wink

Thanks!

Try frosting a rose in the freezer?

divamum

pyry wrote:

Try frosting a rose in the freezer?

You're a true photographer, pyry - NOTHING gets in the way of getting the shot!!

That's actually a really good idea, however... hmm... I need to go out and look at them and see if they survived the freezing temps we've had the last few days (business as usual where you are, but here we're usually a few degrees above most of the time, so the plants tend to go into shock when we get an early-ish cold snap like this one)

Thanks!

pyry

divamum wrote:

You're a true photographer, pyry - NOTHING gets in the way of getting the shot!!

Well, sometimes capturing an image requires creating the image and then capturing it...