2017 Project 52 - 2nd QTR - Sandy(Skitterbug)

[skitterbug]

You very well created more space above the flowers; but removing the vase has created a feeling of abrupt halt? probably Binnur's suggestion to change color to grey (or very pale green ,yellow etc ) may avoid distraction....
The frog/toad has now enhanced features, including colors...
Well done

Hi Nandakumar ~ I think too that I ought to put either a vase back into the pic or as Geoff suggested, crop it closer at the bottom. Once I posted it, I thought it looked a bit like the flowers were floating and it wasn't natural looking. I'll see what I can do to rectify the pic! One thing is certain, I am becoming more used to editing software!
I'm glad Mr. toad seems better now!
Thank you for commenting!

[skitterbug]

These edits look good. Just one thought going on from what Nandakumar said. Crop the flowers a fraction closer at the bottom or clone in a bit more stem so the stems run to the frame edge instead of stopping just short as they do now. That will look more natural.

Hi Geoff ~ I agree with you and Nandakumar, the flowers don't look quite right with the current crop! Either the vase needs to be put back in or the crop needs to be as you suggested! I'll play with it and see how it turns out! Thanks for always taking time to comment! I appreciate your opinion!

[skitterbug]

I managed to mix up my delphinium pics when I initially did the re-edit but the concept of the picture is the same. I am back to the original now. I tried making the vase grey as suggested but I didn't like the way it turned out. So I went with the cropping idea, got rid of some more blemishes, PP a bit more on the flower's color and I believe this is a better result. One thing this exercise did was impress upon me to set up my pic better (if I can) so that there will be lots less "fiddling" afterward. Now all I need is to remember that!

So the final edit of the delphinium is posted below.
Comments appreciated!

[Geoff F]

That works OK now.

[skitterbug]

That works OK now.

Thanks Geoff!

[Wavelength]

That's nice; Since you enjoy editing, i also request a color change of vase, as Binnur proposed

[Shadowman]

#143, very artistic.

[skitterbug]

#143, very artistic.

Thank you John!

[skitterbug]

That's nice; Since you enjoy editing, i also request a color change of vase, as Binnur proposed

Hi Nandakumar ~ LOL ~ I "enjoy editing"??? That statement makes me chuckle. I'd rather get it right the first time!
However, since you (and Binnur) asked, I've worked on this pic this morning. Here's the result of my efforts. It does make me wonder if there are grey flower vases produced in this world! I could use one about now! Learning more about post-processing is always good..........
Comments are appreciated!

[Wavelength]

Removing the contrasty red helps to keep the attention on flowers...i liked this very much; Binnur would also appreciate, i suppose

[bnnrcn]

Hi Sandy The image looks much better with the grey colored vase.. no more distractions. IMO the image needs just a little bit anticlockwise rotation though.

Hi Nandakumar ~ LOL ~ I "enjoy editing"??? That statement makes me chuckle. I'd rather get it right the first time!
However, since you (and Binnur) asked, I've worked on this pic this morning. Here's the result of my efforts. It does make me wonder if there are grey flower vases produced in this world! I could use one about now! Learning more about post-processing is always good..........
Comments are appreciated!

[skitterbug]

Removing the contrasty red helps to keep the attention on flowers...i liked this very much; Binnur would also appreciate, i suppose

Thank you Nandakumar!

[skitterbug]

Hi Sandy The image looks much better with the grey colored vase.. no more distractions. IMO the image needs just a little bit anticlockwise rotation though.

I'm glad you like the results of the vase color change.
Yep, the pic could be straightened a bit and that's what started the whole problem. Probably I should have added extra canvas to the picture first before trying to straighten it and maybe that would have reduced some of my work.

If you look at the first one I posted, after I straightened it, the top of the flower is too close to the top edge of the picture and I ended up chopping off some of the vase as well. So it was then that I added canvas to the top and got rid of the offending vase.

Then I did a re-crop and I think I like that picture best (#143) but the exercise of changing the vase's color and cleaning up the left over pixels was an interesting challenge too.

In the end, I need to simply start with a proper photo shoot so that I have less to do afterward.
Thank you to everyone for all the feedback! This has been an interesting exercise indeed!

[skitterbug]

Hi Binnur ~ So taking what I've learned, I went back to one of the prior edits of this pic, added more canvas, tweaked the colors just a tiny bit and straightened the flower. Hope this is more pleasing to the eye!

[bnnrcn]

It looks perferct now Sandy

[skitterbug]

It looks perferct now Sandy

Thank you Binnur! I appreciate that you kept after me to "get it right"!

[purplehaze]

Very nice, Sandy!

[Urbanflyer]

Isn't it fun to work on something and begin to feel you have the PP skills to turn it into what you want? Nicely done!

[skitterbug]

Judith ~ Isn't it fun to work on something and begin to feel you have the PP skills to turn it into what you want? Nicely done!

Janice ~ Very nice, Sandy!

Hi Judith ~ Yes, it is a good feeling when some of this "clicks into place". I do find that I am becoming more "picky" about what I want to display! <chuckle> It is harder to please "me" now!

Thank you Janice!

It is interesting to me how fast the first half of this P52 project has gone. I will need to catch up for these two weeks but then we are on to the next quarter already! WOW!

[skitterbug]

I'm going to combine weeks 25 and 26 since week24's work overflowed into wk25.

Since I'm still not gallivanting around very well, I decided that the sky looked approximately how I feel - moody. I've tried to fine-tune it a bit. The results are displayed next:

ISO200 - f/8.0 - 1/3200ss
#1 - Moody


And then I spotted my favorite subject. He thought he was hiding. His eyes give him away every time!

ISO200 - f/8.0 - 1/25ss
#2 - Hiding


While I was uploading "Hiding", I discovered that I wanted to crop it even more and found I like this version even better!
#3 - Hiding - cropped



Opinions welcome! Thank you!