High Key Tryout

[chauncey]

From this morning on the remaining flower...what say about the PP

[bnnrcn]

I like it

[chauncey]

Aah...was it unnoticed?

[Shadowman]

What exactly did you have to do other than sharpening?

[Colin Southern]

Personally I'd give it a bit more sharpening and push a few sliders a bit more - looks good though.

One additional thought - at the bottom next to the stem ... looks like a disjointed artifact?

[Mike Buckley]

Very nice, Chauncey. I like the soft look, though I might like it just as much in a different way with slightly more sharpening. The most important change I would like to see is increasing the separation between the bottom three petals and the background.

[chauncey]

Here's one of the starting images for this 40,000 pixel image that were initially stacked and merged.



You can see the shop light in the background aiming an LED at the back of the flower...low tech.
Selected flower and moved it onto a white background>used the Threshold adjustment layer, combined with the Color Range selection method to select whites, mid tones, and darks>created an additional white background image and moved the white selection onto it and reduced opacity to 35%>added the midtone and dark selections at full strength>made two completely duplicated images and applied HDR toning to both with different detail slider settings, one at +30 and the other at -20>from the high detail HDR version I pulled the dark selection onto the low detail version which produced the final image to which minor adjustment layers were applied.

Why so big...I do like the 180 macro lens and couldn't crank the tripod any higher without standing on a chair which would be risky for a fella of my doddering age.

[wilgk]

I really like the example of this technique. It brings out the detail in the subject I think.
My only teeny wish would be for the teeny brown bits on the edges not to be there, but I guess in nature as with everything, perfection is just not that easy!

[Shadowman]

Now that's an explanation of post-processing. If wouldn't have thought of setting up the shot in that manner, using the LED as backlighting; unless I used a diffuser between the subject and the light. I think using the diffuser would have eliminated a few steps in your process. Just a thought.

[chauncey]

using the diffuser would have eliminated a few steps in your process

John, you are without question, correct...that shows the difference between a photographer, and a dabbler in Photoshop.

[ajohnw]

I think some light from the front as well should help. Certain parts are too dark and lack detail. The other aspects is does it need to look delicate or not.

I can't help having a play when I wonder about this sort of thing. Pass on the result but might indicate what I mean. Some detail is badly recovered and a shiny white effect for the background would be better but with this tone level.



John
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[Shadowman]

John, you are without question, correct...that shows the difference between a photographer, and a dabbler in Photoshop.