Project 52 - Kristianna-Marie (Kris V)

[Kris V]

Week 3
These flowers are only supposed to bloom in March/April. A few warm days and they're popping up all over the place.
I tried out a close-up lens that I borrowed from my daughter. It can get screwed on the kit lens of the Nikon.
After about 20 tries, I decided on this one.

[FrankMi]

I like it! Nice color and shape and the black background suits it very well!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Nice contrasting colours - great capture

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Kris, Nice colour in the flower, stands out well against the black background, perhaps a different angle would show more of the flower, eg have the flower falling towards you rather than away, just a thought

[Kris V]

eg have the flower falling towards you rather than away, just a thought

Thanks Wendy - If I can squeeze between the flowers and the tree behind them, I may give it a try!

[Kris V]

Week 4:
Experimenting with Long Exposure:
With 20/20 hindsight, I should have cleaned up the bottom of the fountain.

Exif:
DateTime - 2012:01:23 20:10:19
ExposureTime - 30 seconds
FNumber - 16
ExposureProgram - Shutter priority
ISOSpeedRatings - 400
SubjectDistance - 0.67 m
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
LightSource - Auto
Flash - Not fired
FocalLength - 18.00 mm
ColorSpace - sRGB
ExifImageWidth - 1036
ExifImageHeight - 1200
SceneType - A directly photographed image
CustomRendered - Custom process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 27 mm

[Donald]

With 20/20 hindsight, I should have cleaned up the bottom of the fountain.

Yep, I see what you mean Kris. Although if the sole purpose was experimentation with 30s-long exposure, then that's not too important. It's what you learn from doing the experiment that's important.

One other bit of learning that's maybe available from it, is perhaps about the need to sort out distortion and get it looking straight. Everything's got a distinct lean to the left. Maybe that needs a bit of work on it?

[FrankMi]

I'm guessing the yellowish tint is due to incandescent lighting? If so, you might want to play with the white balance to see if you like better with the cooler coloring.

[Kris V]

It's what you learn from doing the experiment that's important.

One other bit of learning that's maybe available from it, is perhaps about the need to sort out distortion and get it looking straight. Everything's got a distinct lean to the left. Maybe that needs a bit of work on it?

You are so right, Donald!
Note to self: clean up when it's daylight, before experimenting with night shots.
I only realized the dirt the mud spatters on the fountain when I viewed it on my computer.

[MiniChris]

Used your image as a teaching model to see how far we could take this image, yet keep the essence of Kris's original intent.




Did a rotation, clockwise (and quite significantly to get the lean out), addeded a B&W layer where the colors were intensified in some areas, reduced significantly in other areas. Added a contrast layer, two exposure layers where areas were reduced or enhanced in the whites and blacks. Flatytened those layers then filed in the areas left from the rotation, either with a fill color or clone, used the adjustments layer of "Replace Color" to get rid of all the background oranges and reds...used the quick selection tool to isolate the pots and water. Several blanks layers were used to create shadows and lower the brightness of the foreground.

[Kris V]

Cool! (Now you can really see the mud spatters)!!!
PS - Did my bunny run away?

[Kathy O]

Love the photo!

[Kris V]

week 4-update
Thanks Chris for the very cool edit. (I'm definitely not there yet!
Here are 2 SOOC - The top picture was illuminated by a flashlight, the bottom with an LED light, which created an awful blue cast.


And another edit: (Not really near as to what Chis has done!)

[MiniChris]

The bunny wasn't doing anything for the shot, so he had to go to bunny clone heaven. Rather than try to clone out the mud splatters, I used them as textural qualities to add to the overall grittiness of the image. This was just me trying to get some budding photogrphy students thinking in different modalities. Thank you for treating the edits as beneficial to your photographic growth. Perhaps it will show them that they too can participate in critiquing and commenting on other's works.

[Kris V]

The bunny wasn't doing anything for the shot, so he had to go to bunny clone heaven. Rather than try to clone out the mud splatters, I used them as textural qualities to add to the overall grittiness of the image. This was just me trying to get some budding photogrphy students thinking in different modalities. Thank you for treating the edits as beneficial to your photographic growth. Perhaps it will show them that they too can participate in critiquing and commenting on other's works.

Point taken - and thanks for the feedback. I really like what you did to what for me was an experimental picture.

[FrankMi]

Hi Kris! I really like your last edit. To me, the colors are more realistic. Although there are probably additional changes you could make, you are definitely heading in the right direction for my sense of what looks like I would expect to see!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Hi Kris! I really like your last edit. To me, the colors are more realistic. Although there are probably additional changes you could make, you are definitely heading in the right direction for my sense of what looks like I would expect to see!

Me too. And it just goes to show you that sometimes you can turn a photo that you weren't 100% happy with into something that you really like if the essence of the photo is right at the time of capture

[Kris V]

Thanks all for the feedback and encouragement!
What would I do without CiC!!!!

[Kris V]

Me too. And it just goes to show you that sometimes you can turn a photo that you weren't 100% happy with into something that you really like if the essence of the photo is right at the time of capture

As far as experimenting goes, I 'm slowly learning to get out of my comfort zone.

[Kris V]

Week 5:
Didn't get a chance to go out shooting this week - Flu bug got me.
So, I decided to play around with the copy of DXO optics that I got from my son-in-law.
I'm waayy out of my comfort zone, since I never used this software before, but since I really had nothing better to do than hang around feeling miserable, I decided to get a feel for it. (Donald, Got some pointers for me?).
After I few hits and misses, I decided I could start to like it, as long as I have PS CS5 as a crutch.....
This picture was taken a few weeks ago - processed in both ACR



and I used DXO for a B/W conversion.