Bright sunlight, bright colours, deep shadows, too harsh?

[JBW]

[Shadowman]

Perhaps a bit too bright on the one petal, otherwise nicely seen and captured.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Brian,

I got the same initial impression as John, but this looks well exposed, even the red channel is not clipped, so I don't think you have lost detail in that petal.

The biggest problem I see is 'crunchy noise', this is especially troublesome in the out of focus background areas, so I think it is over sharpened (to achieve texture in petals?), perhaps the sharpening was applied at wrong point in workflow, or the 'crunchy noise' is the result of some plug-in/creative filter, run later.

With regard to the issues outlined in the thread title - the sun shadows (e.g. of one petal on another), don't actually look that contrasty or sharp (at the moment the shutter was released).

HTH, Dave

[JBW]

Perhaps a bit too bright on the one petal, otherwise nicely seen and captured.

I did do a little damping down on the petal but I didn't have the skills (yet) to get all the way down without it looking worse than it does now.

[JBW]

Hi Brian,

I got the same initial impression as John, but this looks well exposed, even the red channel is not clipped, so I don't think you have lost detail in that petal.

The biggest problem I see is 'crunchy noise', this is especially troublesome in the out of focus background areas, so I think it is over sharpened (to achieve texture in petals?), perhaps the sharpening was applied at wrong point in workflow, or the 'crunchy noise' is the result of some plug-in/creative filter, run later.

With regard to the issues outlined in the thread title - the sun shadows (e.g. of one petal on another), don't actually look that contrasty or sharp (at the moment the shutter was released).

HTH, Dave

Okay I am curious... 'HTH'?

The crunchy is definitely the result of too much sharpening. But I shall get there.

At least I am getting there with the exposure.

Part of my challenge is that I am trying to find ways to gt my flower shots to be as powerful as Daisy Mae's work and I have absolutely no idea of how to do it. So I am doing a fair bit of experimenting.

[Dave Humphries]

Okay I am curious... 'HTH'?

~

Part of my challenge is that I am trying to find ways to get my flower shots to be as powerful as Daisy Mae's work and I have absolutely no idea of how to do it. So I am doing a fair bit of experimenting.

HTH = Hope That Helps (sorry to abbreviate)

Hmmm, that's a tough challenge with what's in your garden, but then I'm not artistic - although I know what I like and (usually) can work out how to achieve it (once I have seen an example).

My thoughts are that Sharon's 'subject image' tends to be quite simple, either as shot, or by strong PP work, and this is done before she applies any textures or second image as a composite. The main thing to avoid (IMHO) is having the detail/texture (or noise) in the main subject image 'fighting' with detail in the second image or texture in any filter effect.

At least, that would be my theory, not that I've tried it.

HTH - (?) just testing

Cheers, Dave

[Loose Canon]

It appears to me that you have a pretty heavy yellowish color cast Brian.

The greens look off.

[JBW]

HTH = Hope That Helps (sorry to abbreviate)

Hmmm, that's a tough challenge with what's in your garden, but then I'm not artistic - although I know what I like and (usually) can work out how to achieve it (once I have seen an example).

My thoughts are that Sharon's 'subject image' tends to be quite simple, either as shot, or by strong PP work, and this is done before she applies any textures or second image as a composite. The main thing to avoid (IMHO) is having the detail/texture (or noise) in the main subject image 'fighting' with detail in the second image or texture in any filter effect.

At least, that would be my theory, not that I've tried it.

HTH - (?) just testing

Cheers, Dave

YID (yes it did)

[JBW]

It appears to me that you have a pretty heavy yellowish color cast Brian.

The greens look off.

Now that you mention it I might have gone a gnat heavy with the yellow.