DSS 27 - Early start this time... feedback please

anonymouscuban

I'm very dissapointed that I missed the last Mega and DSS challenges. I had shots planned for both but life got in the way and I ended up missing the deadline on both. This time around I'm getting an early jump so I have something to enter.

Here are a few concepts I was able to shoot in my backyard. I have some other ideas but I don't want to miss out again. Would love to hear what you guys think of these so far. Are they too generic? Do they fit the theme? How's the B&W conversion?

Thanks in advance for your input.

#1 - Lone Lilly


#2 - Lillies


#3 - Lillies 2


#4 - Single Rose


#5 - same shot as above but slightly different crop and treatment

JAG

actually when I first went out today looking for things to shoot for this challenge...I went toward flowers at first. But something happens with flowers when they are in b/w. They loose their wow factor without the color. JMO

DsrtVW

The last rose is a bit too contrasted. Are you using that new beast of a lens I am guessing it is a red rose
Are using Capture NX or PS? Capture with the Nikon you can play with the B&W filters.
I like the first three better because the background is less distracting.

Katmitchell

Was wondering where you were... nice to see you back in the game Cuban, missed your work.

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Ok..., here is my take on it..

The lilies are best, but you need to consider the blur... I see an odd blur in the centers.. My favorite is the first one...

The roses are just too dark and the only white to contrast with them is trapped in the bokeh and looks like blowout..the contrast really needs to be in the detail..."Too much gray" and you need more white... and even with the Bokeh the background on the roses is too busy and it does not let the rose stand out..

So, I like the first two lilies and with burning and dodging in very select places and some sharpening up, they are great.. I especially like the grain in the first one.. but there is something wrong with the centers and that blur..... do you see it? Were these hand held? it looks like motion blur.. Is a re-shoot of the lilies possible?

Hope that helps some..

Kat

pyroPrints.com

I like #2 a lot

dnie

ok, I'll be the odd one this time.
I love the rose! I love the darkness of it, yet I can see the detail.
But, I like a high contrast. I like to see how dramatic something can be in B&W, but it may just be me. Maybe it is the way I was taught years ago in my photography classes. We didn't use any color in class so you used your B&W to make the statement as bold as possible.

anonymouscuban

JAG wrote:

actually when I first went out today looking for things to shoot for this challenge...I went toward flowers at first. But something happens with flowers when they are in b/w. They loose their wow factor without the color. JMO

I can't disagree that color is what really makes flowers beautiful. The color versions of these are quite dramatic. As I mentioned, my intent with these was just to get out and shoot something so that I don't find myself Sunday night with nothing to submit. I like them, I just don't know if they are challenge worthy.

bf2015

Have you tried white roses? They are beautiful in color or b&w and the contrast and softness in b&w makes the wow factor.

anonymouscuban

Katmitchell wrote:

Was wondering where you were... nice to see you back in the game Cuban, missed your work.

========================


Ok..., here is my take on it..

The lilies are best, but you need to consider the blur... I see an odd blur in the centers.. My favorite is the first one...

The roses are just too dark and the only white to contrast with them is trapped in the bokeh and looks like blowout..the contrast really needs to be in the detail..."Too much gray" and you need more white... and even with the Bokeh the background on the roses is too busy and it does not let the rose stand out..

So, I like the first two lilies and with burning and dodging in very select places and some sharpening up, they are great.. I especially like the grain in the first one.. but there is something wrong with the centers and that blur..... do you see it? Were these hand held? it looks like motion blur.. Is a re-shoot of the lilies possible?

Hope that helps some..

Kat

Kat... thanks for the feedback. I did shoot these hand-held but I think the blur is from the large aperture I used. I will try reshooting with a smaller aperture to get a bit more depth of field. That will be much easier than trying to adjust in post.

Not sure what to do about the bokeh on the rose shots though.

anonymouscuban

pyroPrints.com wrote:

I like #2 a lot

Thanks PP. #2 is the same shot as #1 but I cropped it a little different and I removed the lilly in BG in post on #1. I like #2 better because I like how the 2nd lilly plays off of the first one.

anonymouscuban

dnie wrote:

ok, I'll be the odd one this time.
I love the rose! I love the darkness of it, yet I can see the detail.
But, I like a high contrast. I like to see how dramatic something can be in B&W, but it may just be me. Maybe it is the way I was taught years ago in my photography classes. We didn't use any color in class so you used your B&W to make the statement as bold as possible.

... I also took a photog class my Junior year in High School. Same deal, B&W film only and we focused a lot on developing high contrast photos. I actually like the rose shots. It is of a bright red rose. I tried my best to pick up the different colors in the highlights and shadows. One of them I did in LR2 and the other I did in CS3; can't remember which one was done where though

I want going to play around with the rose some more to see if I can improve it.

anonymouscuban

bf2015 wrote:

Have you tried white roses? They are beautiful in color or b&w and the contrast and softness in b&w makes the wow factor.

Nope... not yet. I do have a white rose bush in my garden but my gardener recently pruned it so it doesn't have any blooms yet. Hopefully it will before the end of the contest.

Katmitchell

bf2015 wrote:

Have you tried white roses? They are beautiful in color or b&w and the contrast and softness in b&w makes the wow factor.

thumb

I agree with Brian.. A white rose or other white flower may work to give it more (POW)