Tulip

[Round Tuit]

First, I would like to apologize for taking so long to acknowledge your comments and suggestions. I had to take my laptop to a repair shop for a damaged power jack. The repairs only took one day but the damaged jack corrupted my hard drive and I had to "reset my PC". I have been fighting unsuccesfully with Windows 10 ever since to get it to recognize that I am connected to a network.

Thank you all for your comments, they are gratefuly appreciated. I do agree with Ted and Dan that the background is a bit too bright as I was shooting directly into my light source. Here is a revised version where I dropped the exposure in PP:

#2


John, Mike is right, the green is the actual colour of the tulip.

Mike, thanks for your comments and I don't mind if my posting generate side technical, or other, discussions. As far as I am concerned it is all to the good.

André

[Mike Buckley]

I like the revised version every bit as much as the original, not so much because of the darker background but because of the somewhat greater contrast in the slight "texture" of the background (not the right word but I can't think of the right word). If I had to pick a preference, my hunch is that I would pick one on one day and the other on another day. Really nice work, André!

[Manfred M]

I don't know what different calibration tools are doing. But with mine, Spyder 3, I can't set the intensity or contrast of the monitor. It says to use the factory defaults or use a setting with which you're comfortable.

My rather ancient xRite i1 did that too, but I was instructed to make certain adjustments to the brightness and contast before the calibration and profiling program ran.

With my current model xRite ColorMonkey Display, I can set the screen brightness level (I happen to use 120 candela / square meter, which is the top end of what is generally recommended (80 - 120 candela / square meter), but inherent in that decision is room brightness, that is also measured. Using my Sekonic L-358 Lightmeter, my work area is illuminated at 40 lux. The literature I've seen suggests the room brightness should be below 70 lux.

That being said, you are right as I can only control what my screen and working conditions are set at. A lot of computer screens come out of the box with settings in the 200 - 600 candela / square meter range. They could be set up anywhere, so ambient light so you are absolutely correct in say that we have no control over the parameters someone has set their computer screen too.

When it comes to a print, things are just as complicated as we should be following proper lighting conditions there too. Unfortunately, I can't remember the recommended specs off hand nor can I find an old xRite document that discusses that. A specific range of daylight (5500K?) at a specific illumination level is something that I recall. So two different people, with one sitting under a tungsten light and the other having light at noon coming from a north facing window are going to see the same image differently.

All that discounts a person's colour vision too.

[JBW]

Don't know how well my monitor is calibrated but I looked both before and after calibration and the same problem was seen both times. Would it be possible to have the tulip pop out of the bg a little more? I tried it myself but can't get tiny pics to cooperate.

[Round Tuit]

Thank you Mike.

Brian, I am not sure how to make it pop more but am looking forward to seeing what you did once tinypics cooperates again.

André

[JBW]

Thank you Mike.

Brian, I am not sure how to make it pop more but am looking forward to seeing what you did once tinypics cooperates again.

André

Still not cooperating. I could post it to my blog (accredited) and then pot it here. But only if you say it's okay.

[mugge]

Just my two cents worth. The second version is so much better than the first simply because the background is better. Maybe it is just me but I see two very distinct images here.
Cheers Ole

[JBW]

I have taken several pictures of flowers against a black background lately. I decided to try a light background for this unusually coloured tulip. I like the result.

Comments and criticisms are always welcomed.



Andre

Here's a small modification to help pop the tulip



I used Gimp. First I decomposed, then I used the threshold function. Copied and pasted into the original shot and used quick mask. Added a bit of unsharpen mask and there you go. Not a lot of difference but your shot is very subtle and I tried to maintain your intent.

[Round Tuit]

Thank you Ole. I prefer the second one as well.

...I used Gimp. First I decomposed, then I used the threshold function. Copied and pasted into the original shot and used quick mask...

I am not familiar with GIMP and so had to consult professor Google to find out what these steps do. If I am right, I believe that they are creating a mask of the tulip to block the application of the unsharp filter to the background.
I had previously pushed the sharpening this far but backed off because I did not like the two prominent halos that it created. I might go back and deal with the halos separately. Thanks for making me take a second look.

André

[JBW]

Thank you Ole. I prefer the second one as well.



I am not familiar with GIMP and so had to consult professor Google to find out what these steps do. If I am right, I believe that they are creating a mask of the tulip to block the application of the unsharp filter to the background.
I had previously pushed the sharpening this far but backed off because I did not like the two prominent halos that it created. I might go back and deal with the halos separately. Thanks for making me take a second look.

André

Not quite right. Decomposing creates a new version of the shot. This one in black and white. Threshold allows you to adjust what becomes black and what becomes white. I separated most of the tulip from the background. Then I copied the decomposed/thresholded version. Moving back to the original full color version. I clicked on 'quick mask' and pasted in the copied version. This separated the tulip from the bg in the original version. Then some minor tweaks and there you go.