I went fishing

[AndrewMcD]

I went fishing yesterday and spotted these flowers near the river. Except for moving the white and black points slightly up and down respectively this is essentially SOOC. I haven't done many flower images and thought this came out reasonably well. I'm looking for suggestions regarding PP for flowers; is there anything in particular that enhances flower images? By the way, the fishing was terrific but I felt this was the catch of the day.

Andrew

[Mike Buckley]

The main characteristic of a traditional floral image is diffuse light and you took advantage of that very well. Also look for back lighting, which has a nice effect because most flowers are translucent.

Consider desaturating the background just a bit in this photo to trick the eye to think the flowers are more vibrant.

[Shadowman]

Nice.

[AndrewMcD]

Thanks Mike. Making notes: look for diffuse light and/or backlight with floral shots. I'll try desaturating the background on this image and see if the flowers pop out a bit more.

Thanks John.

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Andrew!

[bnnrcn]

I like the image

[Geoff F]

There are a couple of brighter spots in the background which will become a problem if you increase brightness/saturation on the overall image. So I would selectively tone them down or clone out.

Several options to give a bit more 'pop' to the flowers; like Local Contrast Enhancement or an Adjustment Layer with the blend mode set to Soft Light or something similar.

But don't overdo it and lose the subtleness of the blue tints.

[FrankMi]

That's a great shot Andrew! In addition to the suggestions already posted, if you are up for a little experiment, try flipping the image horizontally and see if it is more appealing to you. Sometimes a diagonal coming from lower left to upper right produces a more comfortable feel to it.

[AndrewMcD]

Thanks for your comments Binnur and David!

Geoff F - Thank you for your thoughts on PP. You have touched on one of my concerns with PP for flowers and that is the possibility of overdoing it. I may try to tone down the background with the Lightroom selection brush as a first effort to popping the flowers out from the background. I hadn't thought of cloning for removal of some of the more prominent background features; I'll have a look at that as well.

Thanks,

Andrew

[IzzieK]

Nice find, Andrew...need a bit of enhancement but it is a good start....

[Nancy Moran G]

Beautiful, I feel like I could pick one.
Nancy

[AndrewMcD]

Frank - I find it interesting that the image may have a better appearance with the diagonal originating on the left. As soon as I read your suggestion I could see it would be an improvement. I wonder is this a bias for those of us accustomed to reading left to right, top to bottom? I don't think I can flip it in Lightroom but I don't doubt I can find some suitable way of doing so. Thanks for the always constructive suggestions.

Izzie and Nancy - Thanks for viewing and commenting.

Andrew

[FrankMi]

Frank - I find it interesting that the image may have a better appearance with the diagonal originating on the left. As soon as I read your suggestion I could see it would be an improvement. I wonder is this a bias for those of us accustomed to reading left to right, top to bottom? I don't think I can flip it in Lightroom but I don't doubt I can find some suitable way of doing so. Thanks for the always constructive suggestions.

In Lightroom 3 in the Photo Menu dropdown you should see Flip Horizontal as one of the options.

[AndrewMcD]

In Lightroom 3 in the Photo Menu dropdown you should see Flip Horizontal as one of the options.

Thanks Frank, of course LR would be capable of such a basic function.
Here is a flipped version with the background toned down a bit, the flowers just slightly enhanced with small boosts in saturation, some noise reduction (shot at ISO400) and sharpening.

I've mixed feelings on the flip. With the tendency to read left to right I'm now noticing that the leaf could use a bit of clearance with the left frame edge.
While I like the browns and tans of the background I'm making a note to myself to strive for a more monotone background as it is still a bit distracting. In the end I'm pleased with the results; thanks all for comments and help.

Oh yes, I found out that the flowers are Virginia Bluebells.

[Geoff F]

That little bit of extra boost to the flowers is working well now.

Thae main elements of this scene are rougly central so I don't really think it makes much difference whether the stem is 'leading in' or 'leading out' of the frame.