#82 - Night and Day Flowers

sapphire73 · July 30, 2011

I haven't tried combining two or more images in Photoshop before and don't know if my idea is within the rules for dgrin challenges or not, so I am looking for input on multiple levels.

1) Do you think the idea is worthy of this challenge?
2) Is a Night and Day collage where the background is white on one half and black on the other within the rules?
3) Any C & C re the individual photos? Suggestions as to how to set them side by side in a way that is visually pleasing?

The high-key images are shot around midnight using a lightbox, something I started playing with in January (after reading about it in Creative Close-Ups by Harold Davis). I shot the darker images around noon with filtered sunlight. So the one that looks like "day" was shot at night and vice versa. The flowers are illuminated with a light box to highlight the transparency of the petals and leaves. The hydrangeas and coneflowers seemed to be the best subjects for the dual approach.

Please feel free to give me your frank opinion of this idea, the subjects, and the execution up to this point. (If you prefer the shots from Midday in Napa, I'd be interested in hearing that as well.) Thanks!

1) Translucent

2) Hydrangeas Night and Day

3) Night and Day (with coneflowers)

Any thoughts on these?

Thanks,
Gretchen

sapphire73 · July 31, 2011

[Edit: Removed #4 as an option but left the comment.]

My current favorite is 2b with the hydrangeas. This whole idea may be too far out in left field, and I realize that not everyone likes the lightbox effect. If the idea has merit but my photoshop skills aren't up to par for combining images, I'll try to come up with something else.

Cheers,
Gretchen

Quincy T · July 31, 2011

I haven't read up on the challenge, I was just jumping on DGrin to look around, but I clicked on this and wanted to say these are really nice shots regardless!

#3 is excellent!

ghinson · July 31, 2011

Might be because I'm having a hard time translating a lightbox to the theme, but I prefer the first one. I can see these printed glossy and framed as miniatures for the wall. Nice.

tinamarie52 · July 31, 2011

Gretchen, I like all of them. I think you are going for a night/day...noon/midnight. approach.

Are you able to take the same flowers in the same position one on white, one on black and create mirro images of the flowers with your white and black backgrounds? It would be similar to your 2a with the same flower in mirror image perspective.

Chris

sapphire73 · July 31, 2011

Thank you all for your input on these.

Sword and Scales, I'm glad you like them!

Greg, thanks for letting me know which one you prefer and that you feel a disconnect with the theme. Did you feel that #1 had more connection to the theme or just prefer it overall (outside of the challenge)?

Chris, you are right in thinking that I am going for a night and day approach and using the lighting, exposure and background color to convey this in terms of light and dark. Rather than selecting a subject that communicates midnight or noon, I was going for an approach to a traditional subject that would express both. (I figured that it doesn't really matter which shots were done at night and which during the day as long as they evoke Night and Day and were taken within the time frame.) As it happens, backlighting a flower with the lightbox seems to work best when there is minimal light from other sources - so I have been shooting these at opposite times (refrigerating the flowers in the interim to help keep them fresh).

Chris, I'm not sure whether I could get the same composition with the same flower (at two different times of day) to create the effect of mirror images, but I might be able to get closer to that. I've been shooting with a 60mm macro lens but might switch to a zoom so it is easier to pull back for some shots and have a little more room for manipulating the images in post-processing.

I may end up sitting this one out as I am getting ready for my father to visit and reconfiguring my home to be more comfortable (and safe) for someone with advanced Alzheimer's. (He is coming for a family wedding.) We are heading overseas right after his visit, so lots to do but at least I can get around without a boot on my foot and I've just had a relaxing vacation.

Thanks again,
Gretchen

tinamarie52 · July 31, 2011

Gretchen, you've done a lot of work on these. Any of them would make a fitting entry for the theme. Remember that my suggestions are just that... suggestons, which you can take or leave. don't let the feedback prevent you from entering.

Good luck with your Dad's visit. Glad you have the boot off!

Chris

sapphire73 · July 31, 2011

tinamarie52 wrote: »

Gretchen, you've done a lot of work on these. Any of them would make a fitting entry for the theme. Remember that my suggestions are just that... suggestons, which you can take or leave. don't let the feedback prevent you from entering.

Good luck with your Dad's visit. Glad you have the boot off!

Chris

Thanks, Chris. I do appreciate your input and the suggestions. My comment re sitting this one out is more reflective of what lies ahead of me than discouragement.

sapphire73 · July 31, 2011

During my break from cleaning, I explored Photoshop Elements 9 some more and played with mirrored images. If I enter one of these, I'll clean up the cropping and alignment. Could get rid of that extra piece stem and/or pull back on these to get a bit more. I'd welcome your input on titles, concept, execution, etc.

[Edit: Just went back and grabbed a different image of the hydrangeas and redid the Inverse Relationship collage. I like this better than the other crop for these mirrored image collages but don't have time to redo them all.]

5a. Inverse Relationship [new version with different crop of hydrangeas]

6. Night and Day (mirrored)

[Edit: Removed 5b, 7 & 8 as options.]

Some edits of #1 to soften the "glare" of the lightbox, etc. (If I use one of these, I'll need to come up with something appropriate for a title.)

1b. Dreams of Gardening (some blue fill)

1d. Hydrangea in Watercolors A

[Edit: Removed 1c and 1e]

Thanks,
Gretchen

ghinson · July 31, 2011

sapphire73 wrote: »

Greg, thanks for letting me know which one you prefer and that you feel a disconnect with the theme. Did you feel that #1 had more connection to the theme or just prefer it overall (outside of the challenge)?

I like the new number 6. I can definitely see where you're going with the theme. I think it works. I guess it's just that you could take these at any time of the day or night, instead of our hour-specific charge.

But definitely striking images.

Good job.

kdotaylor · August 1, 2011

I really like #5, both a and b!

bf2015 · August 1, 2011

I really love the translucence of 1d, but I also really like the solid black background of 2b. I can only tell you what I like since I have almost no experience with studio shots. I've never been able to get a completely solid black background. But the lighting IMO is spot on!

Best wishes for the wedding.

dlscott56 · August 1, 2011

These are really nice Gretchen. I like #3 from your originals and #6 from the second set but am seeing a lot of noise on the black.

GretaPics · August 1, 2011

I agree with the others on #6 - clever take on the theme - nicely shot and processed. Love the translucence that you captured in the petals. I've been wanting to try a light box myself...you know how much I like flowers and close-ups! Thanks for your inspiration. GP

sapphire73 · August 1, 2011

Thank you all for your input on these! I'll keep exploring this idea and check in with Sean on what is within the parameters of the dgrin challenges.

Greg, thanks for taking the time to comment on the new shots and all.

Kate, I'm partial to 5a myself although I love the soft color palette of the hydrangeas. Thanks for giving me your thoughts on these.

Brian, you picked out my personal favorites. I think I used an hdr version of the hydrangea for the 1b-e edits, and I really liked the way it looks with the watercolor edit. I've been using Bill Atkinson's photocard app on the iPad (to send postcards via email) and I can see using some of these shots for photocards.

Dave, are you seeing noise on the black with both images or specifically #3? Both were shot at low ISO but I'll check it out. I oversaturated the pink coneflower in #3 (with a plant mister), inadvertently making dark spots on the petals and used a black top (lint and all) for the background so it could be noise or something a little harder to fix...

Greta, I had an old lightbox from the days of sorting slides and have been using that for these. I tried this with an iris and a lily a few months ago, and the iris worked especially well. Hope you get a chance to try this yourself!

Thanks again everyone.

Cheers,
Gretchen

dlscott56 · August 1, 2011

sapphire73 wrote: »

Dave, are you seeing noise on the black with both images or specifically #3? Both were shot at low ISO but I'll check it out. I oversaturated the pink coneflower in #3 (with a plant mister), inadvertently making dark spots on the petals and used a black top (lint and all) for the background so it could be noise or something a little harder to fix...

Both images. Do you use Photoshop to edit your images? Add a levels adjustment layer. Then press and hold the ALT key and left click on the left adjustment slider (black point) and you instantly see all of the areas in the black that aren't quite black. A very slight adjustment to the right eliminates it. You can do the same on the right side to see the areas that aren't quite white. There are other ways to take care of it without adjusting the flower images at all, but this seems to work ok for these. You can give it a try and see whether or not you like the results. Just a thought.

Anyway they are very nice images.

sapphire73 · August 1, 2011

dlscott56 wrote: »

Both images. Do you use Photoshop to edit your images? Add a levels adjustment layer. Then press and hold the ALT key and left click on the left adjustment slider (black point) and you instantly see all of the areas in the black that aren't quite black. A very slight adjustment to the right eliminates it. You can do the same on the right side to see the areas that aren't quite white. There are other ways to take care of it without adjusting the flower images at all, but this seems to work ok for these. You can give it a try and see whether or not you like the results. Just a thought.

Anyway they are very nice images.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try doing that. I had been using Lightroom 3 for photo processing with occasional follow-up with Photoshop Elements - usually levels. Recently upgraded to PSE 9 (from 6) and it is now easier to create adjustment layers (than it was in earlier versions of PSE), so I have started doing more with Photoshop.

Appreciate the help!

Gretchen

sapphire73 · August 2, 2011

I'll take another look at #6 tomorrow but spent some time working on adding a texture layer to #5 today. Used an image of hydrangea blossoms shot around noon today. Do you think this benefits from a hint of color? Are the images with more background texture too much? I welcome your input even if it is "you might want to leave well enough alone"! Looking over the feedback, I see that most prefer 2, 3 or 6 over 5....

Thanks,
Gretchen

7a. Hydrangeas Night and Day

7b. Night and Day

7c. Night and Day

7d. Flowers Night and Day

red_zone · August 2, 2011

It seems like you've moved on, but I just wanted to let you know that I really like the asymetrical originals you had in 3 and 2b. I prefer 2b, but I like hydrangeas better anyway. I think the photoshop play is interesting, but that your first few posts reflect the noon/midnight theme better.

sapphire73 · August 2, 2011

Still Looking at All My Options

red_zone wrote: »

It seems like you've moved on, but I just wanted to let you know that I really like the asymetrical originals you had in 3 and 2b. I prefer 2b, but I like hydrangeas better anyway. I think the photoshop play is interesting, but that your first few posts reflect the noon/midnight theme better.

Jake, I just finished reshooting the "dark side" of 2b and I'm still looking at 2b and 6 as options. The photoshop play was to see whether I could introduce color effectively if I went with 5, but it looks like 2, 3, and 6 are more appealing and/or convey the theme better to folks. Waiting to hear whether this general idea fits the parameters of the challenge or not before I do more in photoshop but knew that I had to reshoot the hydrangeas asap....

Thank you very much for taking the time to give your input on these!

Gretchen

sweetharmony · August 2, 2011

GORGEOUS! You sure can tell that you are giving this a goodly amount of thought and energy....

sapphire73 · August 2, 2011

sweetharmony wrote: »

GORGEOUS! You sure can tell that you are giving this a goodly amount of thought and energy....

Thanks, Sweet Harmony. Glad you like them. Any preferences with this challenge in mind?

Gretchen

dlscott56 · August 2, 2011

Well, after all the reshoot/reprocessing, I still think 3 is my favorite. I just like the idea that the image is different as well as the lighting and processing. No matter which you pick to enter, it will be a strong entry. Nice work.

sapphire73 · August 2, 2011

dlscott56 wrote: »

Well, after all the reshoot/reprocessing, I still think 3 is my favorite. I just like the idea that the image is different as well as the lighting and processing. No matter which you pick to enter, it will be a strong entry. Nice work.

Looks like #3 isn't option as it stands. Just heard back from Sean that most of these images fall within the rules. The exception is #3 because the subject isn't touching an edge of the white or black, meaning it is floating in a way that breaks the rules about not having frames. Number 3 is a temporary entry while I figure out whether to go with 2, 5 or 6 after making a few tweaks.

Still open to your thoughts on these!

Thanks,
Gretchen

lkbart · August 3, 2011

I really like the translucent colors of 2 & the right side of 6 - I also like 3, but understand (much better now after reading Sean's explanation) the framing issue there. Really neat idea of the black/white backgrounds - very on-theme! I also like the subtle flower background on the right side of 7b & the left side of 7d, but I like the color versions of the flowers better.

sapphire73 · August 3, 2011

New Night and Day Hydrangeas
Here are the latest permutations. I'd welcome your input on which you think might be a strong entry. Wishing I had taken more art courses somewhere along the way.... C & C welcome.

Gretchen

8. Hydrangeas Night and Day

9.

10. Inverse Relationships

11. Night and Day

12.

13.

Many thanks for the help you have already given me!

sherstone · August 4, 2011

Good News!
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1652795#post1652795

sapphire73 · August 4, 2011

lkbart wrote: »

I really like the translucent colors of 2 & the right side of 6 - I also like 3, but understand (much better now after reading Sean's explanation) the framing issue there. Really neat idea of the black/white backgrounds - very on-theme! I also like the subtle flower background on the right side of 7b & the left side of 7d, but I like the color versions of the flowers better.

Lillian, thanks for taking the time to give input on these. Hope things are going OK for you!

Gretchen

angevin1 · August 5, 2011

sapphire73 wrote: »

Waiting to hear whether this general idea fits the parameters of the challenge or not

What parameters do you feel it pushes? Borders? Borders were allowed and now with Seans rule change, even more so. Otherwise I saw no rule issues in these photos~

sapphire73 · August 5, 2011

angevin1 wrote: »

What parameters do you feel it pushes? Borders? Borders were allowed and now with Seans rule change, even more so. Otherwise I saw no rule issues in these photos~

Thanks for looking at this thread, Tom. I hope to get back to these later today or tomorrow. One of my composites was outside the rules re borders before - #3 Night and Day with coneflowers - but they all fit now that Sean tweaked the rules. Now I am just waiting on free time.

Gretchen

#82 - Night and Day Flowers

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