Bugs and spiders yesterday, Purple flower today

[JBW]

[Dave Humphries]

This looks to be straight out of camera Brian, although I guess there was a small crop.

On the subject of crop; this isn't how I would have framed the bloom within the image.

To my mind it is 'looking' out of frame lower left corner, so should be positioned more in to the top right corner.

The shot might also benefit from setting black and white points, especially the black end of the range.

Overall, exposure and colours look natural though and it has nice 'hairy' detail (when viewed at 100%).

Cheers, Dave

[JBW]

This looks to be straight out of camera Brian, although I guess there was a small crop.

On the subject of crop; this isn't how I would have framed the bloom within the image.

To my mind it is 'looking' out of frame lower left corner, so should be positioned more in to the top right corner.

The shot might also benefit from setting black and white points, especially the black end of the range.

Overall, exposure and colours look natural though and it has nice 'hairy' detail (when viewed at 100%).

Cheers, Dave

I am unsure if straight out of the camera is good or not so good.

I did crop. not once but twice.
I also;
set my camera and lens
set sharpness and light drop off
set white and black points
did a 5 point curve
adjusted exposure via exposure, brightness, contrast and saturation
applied some clarity
moved in to GIMP
applied levels
edge detect
gaussian blurring
3 no make that 4 different levels and areas of NL filters
added an unsharpen mask, scaled it down
and finally shipped it out.

I worked very diligently to get the natural look and the hairy detail sharpened nicely.

[Dave Humphries]

Cor Blimey, you did all that.

No wonder it looks good and natural - apart from (to me) the framing, which is largely personal choice, rather than right or wrong.

You did well then, Dave

[Shadowman]

I am unsure if straight out of the camera is good or not so good.

I did crop. not once but twice.
I also;
set my camera and lens
set sharpness and light drop off
set white and black points
did a 5 point curve
adjusted exposure via exposure, brightness, contrast and saturation
applied some clarity
moved in to GIMP
applied levels
edge detect
gaussian blurring
3 no make that 4 different levels and areas of NL filters
added an unsharpen mask, scaled it down
and finally shipped it out.

I worked very diligently to get the natural look and the hairy detail sharpened nicely.

Brian,

Why'd you use Gaussian blur?

[JBW]

Cor Blimey, you did all that.

No wonder it looks good and natural - apart from (to me) the framing, which is largely personal choice, rather than right or wrong.

You did well then, Dave

I'd agree it is not my best cropping.

[JBW]

Brian,

Why'd you use Gaussian blur?

I used it on the background to help the blossom stand out just a bit more.

[Shadowman]

I used it on the background to help the blossom stand out just a bit more.

Ok, I was concerned you might have used it on the flower.

[JBW]

Ok, I was concerned you might have used it on the flower.

on the blossom i did the area specific NL filter.

[bnnrcn]

Hi brian, very natural looking flower I think the gaussian blur made the leaves look pale and that's why the image looks like SOOC.

[JBW]

Hi brian, very natural looking flower I think the gaussian blur made the leaves look pale and that's why the image looks like SOOC.

The leaves are not a bright green and it was shot in the shade. But I could have thrown a little more saturation their way.