DSS #28... need some C/C!

AirThom

I found a dragonfly (and butterfly, not pictured) trapped in my screened in porch and popped off a couple of pictures... mainly for the kids to get really close up looks at the bugs but once I was doing the PP on them I noticed a nice SQUARE pattern of the screen behind them. What do you think, is it square enough to go into the competition?

sixdaemonbag

Personally, LOVE IT.

DsrtVW

Definitely worthy, no limit on size or number of squares. Good color and focus

travelways

This is a nice photo and without doubt very educative.

However, for the contest I'm really not sure... the grill looks to me to be
more rectangles than squares... maybe it's just my eyes...

mrleo

I really like the photo. If it were me I would enter it in the contest.

anonymouscuban

Love it. Definitely squares.

whiterice

Really nice - love the screen and the background. Would make a great entry!

Katmitchell

Definitely a nice capture.. Those are squares for sure and that is creative AirThom..

The blur is a little much to make it a strong crisp entry though.. I think if that blur was there on a flower or foliage it would look ok. I think it just stands out more here because of the "sharp patterns of the metal" on one side.. I just don't favor the way the blur creeps up onto half of the wings and head of the main subject ... That is just me though..

I love the colors, that blue and green, beautiful capture for sure.

Do you have any other shots from that shoot?

I think it is a very strong idea and entry....

Kat

AirThom

Kat, feel free to poke through the gallery: http://photos.thomasflock.com/gallery/8600213_mMeE2

It was so late in the day I didn't have a ton of light on the inside of the room where he was (decent light on the background outside), so I had to run the aperture a bit wider than I wanted.... thus the resulting blur. I should've experimented a bit more and tightened the aperture a bit for a couple of them. Hindsight being 20/20 and all. The other problem was the little bugger wouldn't hold still

Thanks so much for everyone's input, I love it!

Katmitchell

Awesome shots AirThom.. Just checked out the gallery.

I am voting for #1.. the first one in your series.. it is much sharper.. I am guessing you chose the one you did because of the color..

Try playing with the first one in your series and work with tint and black and white conversion and different colorations.

I really "like it the way it is" because of the way the white in the wings work with the white in the bokeh. I think it is beautiful.. but if you want more color, then work with it, you never know.... and I really like the composition in this one too..

The first one in the last row is not bad either and has color already, but the composition is not as good as the first one in the top row...

Thanks for sharing, and I know what you mean with them moving all of the time. I have tried shots like this before myself.. It is tough on that screen with all of the lines... looks like you caught him on #1 thoughthumb

Look forward to seeing what you do with it..

Kat

whiterice

This is a nice series....I like #18 and #19, interesting angle and so much detail in the wings. However, the angle also makes the screen not-so prominent which is so important for this theme.

Looking over the images I agree with Kat, #1 is a nice option. I'm interested to see what you can do with this one.

AirThom

Ok... still waiting for my edit to #1 to upload. So for Kat... I recropped what I could on the first one of the second row (here-forth to be called #2).


Ahh, and #1 has finished uploading... on this one I brought that yellow blob down a bit while trying to bring the color up in the picture overall. I think I even put in a touch more blacks.


Thoughts?

Katmitchell

They are both looking good.. One thing.. the yellow blob thing is more apparent than I realized.. If you have Photoshop you can get rid of it like this..

Image> Adjustments > Selective Color>

Up Top there is a drop down list, choose yellow..

then below on sliders, bring

Yellow to -100
Magenta to - +8
Black to +100
Cyan to +100

try that and it should eliminate the yellow blob.. at least that is how I would do it personally..:D


I am liking them both, and although I loved the color on your very first post, these have much sharper screen and squares..
which is important for theme.

Whichever one you choose best of luck, and if you post something different, I will try to keep an eye on the board for those too, and hopefully once I get mine posted you can drop by and let me know what you think of mine...


Kat

Dave P

What would be super cool is the eyes (somewhat round) on the square background.

Just thinking aloud....

Nice shot!



Dave

richtersl

AirThom wrote:

I like this one and do not mind the yellow blob. But it's up to you how you want to handle it. Have you tried rotating this one so that the mesh lines up with the frame?

whiterice

richtersl wrote:

I like this one and do not mind the yellow blob. But it's up to you how you want to handle it. Have you tried rotating this one so that the mesh lines up with the frame?

Looking really good, but I might try rotating the canvas just slightly to line the mesh with the frame.

AirThom

whiterice wrote:

Looking really good, but I might try rotating the canvas just slightly to line the mesh with the frame.

Howz abouts that!

whiterice

Very nice! I love this take on the theme.

I can't think of any other suggestions. Perhaps some of the very technically saavy, more experienced Dgrinners will chime in!

Katmitchell

Airthom..

If ya want to fix that screen here is a trick that will work.. but you have to have patience with it..

go into photoshop and click on your quick select tool and click this symbol ( } ) on your keyboard a few times to make your quick select brush larger, then select your entire image and go to filter > liquefy

Once there set your brush size 150 , Brush Density 9, Brush Pressure 17, Reconstruct options to stiff.. on the left side of the screen - top left - make sure the pointed finger warp symbol is clicked on....> then grab that screen and work it over until it is straight on the edges..thumb

Hope this helps..

Kat

travelways

AirThom wrote:

Howz abouts that!

I like this one a lot.

Now the squares of the grill are square

I also like how the shadows of the grill go on the dragonfly body.

For me all the colors work very well making a whole nice composition.

Very nice light too

richtersl

photo-bug wrote:

I like this one a lot.

Now the squares of the grill are square

I also like how the shadows of the grill go on the dragonfly body.

For me all the colors work very well making a whole nice composition.

Very nice light too

AirThom

Katmitchell wrote:

Airthom..

If ya want to fix that screen here is a trick that will work.. but you have to have patience with it..

go into photoshop and click on your quick select tool and click this symbol ( } ) on your keyboard a few times to make your quick select brush larger, then select your entire image and go to filter > liquefy

Once there set your brush size 150 , Brush Density 9, Brush Pressure 17, Reconstruct options to stiff.. on the left side of the screen - top left - make sure the pointed finger warp symbol is clicked on....> then grab that screen and work it over until it is straight on the edges..thumb

Hope this helps..

Kat

Ok Kat... I've tried this a couple of times and maybe I'm not applying enough patience (or maybe I suck at doing it) but all I end up doing is making the edges more noticeable not less. :cry I'm gonna take Father's Day off from it and see about giving it one more go this week.

NikonsandVstroms

AirThom wrote:

Howz abouts that!

I like this one alot, what I like about it over the other one is the very "square" look to the squares making almost exact horizontal and verticle lines.

If you continue in my eye I really like this look or if you go at an angle to go for a more extreme one than your initial photo to really emphisize it.

Back to this photo the more I look at it the more I like it. You have 3 distinct layers for the viewer, the great organic detail on the dragon fly, then going the geometric mesh but with slight enough variations to hold the overall look but then if you take time with the image you can see those waves in the pattern, and finally going to the background with those great splashes of color looking almost like the light flowing pigments you would get from watercolors.

So, overall

Katmitchell

AirThom wrote:

Ok Kat... I've tried this a couple of times and maybe I'm not applying enough patience (or maybe I suck at doing it) but all I end up doing is making the edges more noticeable not less. :cry I'm gonna take Father's Day off from it and see about giving it one more go this week.

Good idea.. get some rest.. if you don't mind, and I have "your permission", I will right click save the photo to my hard drive and bring it into PS and see what I can do to walk you through it... My guess is you are starting from too far in when you go to pull on it.... Will post on it later tonight.. this last step would really be the icing on top if you can clean those edges up..

Kat

bf2015

AirThom,

It's a very interesting capture and I like what you did with the background. I especially like the translucense of the wings! As for the wow factor we all talk about...for me I'm not sure it's there. It looks like you've done everything possible PP that you can do with this shot. And I always say, enter what you feel is your favorite/best shot.

I looked at your galleries. You do some very nice photography. IMHO, after seeing the rest of your photography, I think you can do better. Many of your photos have that true wow factor that has me saying "SWEET!" everytime I look at them. And one that specifically stuck out for me actually has this current theme built in. It's the photo of your square skylight at work that you took back in '06. Maybe reshoot that from a different angle or an HDR to expose the sky. You could always post that photo here just to get an opinion from others to see if it would be worth pursuing.



Brian

AirThom

bf2015 wrote:

AirThom,

It's a very interesting capture and I like what you did with the background. I especially like the translucense of the wings! As for the wow factor we all talk about...for me I'm not sure it's there. It looks like you've done everything possible PP that you can do with this shot. And I always say, enter what you feel is your favorite/best shot.

I looked at your galleries. You do some very nice photography. IMHO, after seeing the rest of your photography, I think you can do better. Many of your photos have that true wow factor that has me saying "SWEET!" everytime I look at them. And one that specifically stuck out for me actually has this current theme built in. It's the photo of your square skylight at work that you took back in '06. Maybe reshoot that from a different angle or an HDR to expose the sky. You could always post that photo here just to get an opinion from others to see if it would be worth pursuing.



Brian

Oh man, I completely forgot about that thing. Good call. I'm completely swamped all week though, in a class that's 50miles out of my normal way. Boy, I walk under that thing everyday (except for this week, ha!)

Thanks Brian! I appreciate the kind words and encouragement... If I can squeeze it in I'll definitely try to snap some of that skylight. Otherwise, I'll get loading PS on my laptop to bring to this class with me to work on the screen. heh

Eric

AirThom

I lined up the top and bottom pretty close with the grid, but the sides are a no go. And Kat's generous advice I'm just not able to make it look right... so what if I drop a vignette to mask the sides a bit? I'm in a class so I'm unable to really put a good chunk of time into my final entry.... thoughts?

whiterice

I like it! Usually not a fan of vignette, but it works here - others may disagree.

Katmitchell

Airthom...

I am sorry the PS was tough.. I can still help walk you through it if you want me too....Just let me know.. That aside..... If you don't have time.. No Big Deal..:D

In the end it is a screen, and I think everyone will understand some of the warping because that is just what screens do,, so don't worry too much..

As far as with the Vignette or Without it.. Hmmm Both look good to me, but if I had to pick I would say I like the brightness of the one without it.. but both are just fine either way.. IMHO

Grand entry and good luck to you

travelways

I like the vignette. I think that you had a very good idea doing this because
it ads some more contrast to the photo and reduces a little the empty space,
letting the image focus on the main subject.

I really think this would be a very strong entry.

AirThom

Considering the rest of my week (and weekend)... I'm gonna enter this now. I'm really pleased with what I have given my time crunch this week. I would've loved to catch that skylight, because like Brian said it would've been awesome. Here's my old shot, with a P&S 3 years ago... with no PP.



If anyone lives in Indy and wants the location of this spot I would certainly share it with you... just ask.



***EDIT: By "enter this" I meant my dragonfly... heh