First to bloom!

[AlwaysOnAuto]

The other thread was getting rather long so thought I'd start another one.
Here is our first bloom of our Amaryllis.



SOOC jpeg and reduced for posting via Tinypics. No other PP done.

[DanK]

An amaryllis outside! We still have a foot or 18 inches of snow on our garden.

Frankly, this one doesn't do it for me. The background is very distracting. Since you have nice flowers against a block wall, I'd suggest you consider taking a piece of cloth and laying it down as an artificial background.

The fact that it is SOOC--meaning only that the processing was done by the camera rather than by you--also is a drawback in this case, I think. The image is lacking contrast, and without cropping, there is a lot of distracting detail--the pipe on the right and all the OOF greenery on the left. I made only three changes in photoshop: using a curves layer, I dropped the white point and added a bit of contrast, and I cropped both sides. See what you think. If you don't want edits of your images, sorry--let me know, and I will remove it.

[Shadowman]

I think the pre-bloom to the left is just as interesting, both have an alien quality about them.

[Wavelength]

Nice; how about a cropped out close up?

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Dan, I don't mind edits at all as I have few, if any, PP skills. If you'd like to see some of my faked background shots, look here:
Almost ready for prime time...

As for a cropped out closeup how's this Nandakumar:

[IzzieK]

I was thinking of the same thing but Nandadumar brought it up first. Anyway, although the edit is much nice, the first one gave me (us) an overview of your nice garden...lots of photo-ops there if you are into flower photography and that light on the back as one for your props to...

[bnnrcn]

Nice flower, I like both Dan's edit and your crop

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thank you Binnur.
This morning I waited until after I cut the grass and the sun had come around the wall to take my 'daily shot' of the flower. So far it is the only one to open up, but I think the weather this weekend will get the others to come out sooner than later. It's headed back up to the 90's, again.
SOOC except for resizing.



I like the way this shows the crystalline like surface of the flower petals and the pollen.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Alan!

Congrats on your first bloom! Beautiful creature! Nothing like Spring springing to put a little spring in your step!

Alan, these shots look underexposed to me. Your last by about a stop and change. This is contributing to the flat look Dan mentioned. I also think you might be losing some detail because of this.

Also, a thought might be your crops. Always good to check the sides of your frame. In your crop for Nandakumar, the partial bud in the upper right corner of the frame isn’t good. As is the little piece in the very lower right corner.

I like your last shot as far as composition Alan. A little post production can go a long ways! If you are going to shoot these in the garden, along with the BG suggestions that have been mentioned, you might consider using a scrim of some sort to help diffuse the light and soften the shadows. The BG and scrim you could pull off at the shoot and is not related to post production.

Happy Spring, Alan!

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks Terry.
Here's the shot I just posted with the exposure increased 1.5 according to my software. Not sure if that correlates to a stop or not. I also increased brightness and contrast by '10' (on a scale of 0 to 100 and -100 to 0) . These were direct full sun, which was going in/out from behind a few stray clouds we had this morning. I also increased the black level too and reduced the noise.
Did I help it or ???

Thanks again for the suggestions.



As for the previous crop for Nandakumar, I thought it better to leave those elements in rather than cutoff the petals of the flower.
Which is the more acceptable method?

[IzzieK]

I prefer this last one ... nicely done... Unfortunately, much as I like Marie to comment on this flower, she is caught up with life at the moment...she is a good one to comment on this flower as she has quite a collection of them...

[Loose Canon]

Here's the shot I just posted with the exposure increased 1.5 according to my software. Not sure if that correlates to a stop or not. I also increased brightness and contrast by '10' (on a scale of 0 to 100 and -100 to 0).

Alan I had that shot pegged at around 1.4 stops underexposed. Then backed that off a bit depending on how I like it. But, and this is huge, it doesn’t really make diddley what I like. That’s up to you to decide, but according to your histogram on this it is indeed somewhat underexposed.

So 1.5 stops is in the ballpark. I think your edited version looks much better myself exposure-wise. Its hard tellin’ not knowin’ how you are processing in post, but the shot could use a bit of sharpening. The contrast you added looks good from where I’m sitting.

Something about contrast/sharpening? Sometimes sharpening looks best for a shot, but a lot of times adding contrast gives the appearance of sharpening. Most sharpening tools work on edge contrast anyway, so one technique is to add your contrast, then look at sharpening that. Contrast brings your edges to more contrast so not so maybe not so much need to go further. The opposite is also true. Sharpening can add contrast. They are closely related so this is good to know so that you can maybe try both techniques, in differing order, to see what makes your shot sing.

Noise reduction is a godsend. For certain types of work. It has some definite disadvantages and is not always a good thing for a universal adjustment. Just keep in mind while you are using it that the biggest disadvantage is going to be some loss of detail. But if you use it, do that first before output/creative sharpening.

I also increased the black level too and reduced the noise.

These were direct full sun, which was going in/out from behind a few stray clouds we had this morning.

Good call with the black point. It’s easy to tell this was shot in direct sunlight Alan. From the hard lines that the shadows are producing. Now, I’m not a huge flower shooter, but flowers are soft, beautiful beings in my opinion. If you are of this opinion, then the Theory would be that soft light/soft shadow is needed to bring this out in your blooms. As you were shooting, waiting for the “overcast” is one way to get nice diffuse lighting. If that ain’t happening, a diffuser over the top diffusing the light is a cool way to go.

As for the previous crop for Nandakumar, I thought it better to leave those elements in rather than cutoff the petals of the flower.
Which is the more acceptable method?

While I appreciate you did it for Nandakumar, I didn’t really see a great crop for a tight version of that particular shot Alan. I even went through a rotation of the image to find one. Not every shot has a great tight crop but the outside elements are the reason in this case as you mentioned. Your last serves as a nice tight shot to me. But remember? No reason why you couldn’t move a stem over a tad just to get it out of the frame without damaging it.

I did a “quickie” before and after. The “after” is pretty close to what you did Alan.

Nice work.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

What a difference a day makes!



Sorry, this is just SOOC and reduced to upload.

[IzzieK]

You have certainly quite a healthy bunch over there your way. Don't forget to throw some good weather over my way here...we're supposed to have another freeze soon.

[bnnrcn]

What a difference a day makes!

I can understand from your threads that you have a lovely garden




Sorry, this is just SOOC and reduced to upload.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Amaryllis overload...this will be the last update to this thread, I promise.
Nex-7 w/Nikkor 300mm from across the yard.

[Marie Hass]

What a joyous sight!!!!!

My favorite flower. The fact that it starts its most vigorous blooming from January to May is so uplifting to me when winter is at its peak and on into the early days of spring.

Marie

[IzzieK]

What a joyous sight!!!!!

My favorite flower. The fact that it starts its most vigorous blooming from January to May is so uplifting to me when winter is at its peak and on into the early days of spring.

Marie

I thought I can entice you to come out of your shell...to comment on Alan's shot... Thanks Marie...