My Crystal Ball Says Winter Is Coming

[jordand]

[katto]

Yes, winter is coming.....

[Yuukon]

Lovely scene!
I do however get the feeling that the depth of field has been created artificially in post processing. It feels more like a gaussian blur to me than a natural lens blur. The ball itself also feels very flat because of that, it seems like a circle more than a crystal ball. Did you perhaps edit the photo into the ball itself afterwards?

What gear did you use? And what is the EXIF data of this shot?

[jordand]

The lack of depth of field is natural and has much to do with the gear I used - Tamron AF SP 90mm F/2.8 Di VC USD Macro and APS-C body.
As for the PP, I flipped the image inside the ball and adjusted tonal contrast (only inside) using Nik Color Efex.

[Manfred M]

The lack of depth of field is natural and has much to do with the gear I used - Tamron AF SP 90mm F/2.8 Di VC USD Macro and APS-C body.
As for the PP, I flipped the image inside the ball and adjusted tonal contrast (only inside) using Nik Color Efex.

Makes sense to me. The glass ball is acting as a lens, so the image would be inverted; flipping the orientation makes a more compelling image. With the closeup lens in use, the image there would be focused, while the background would be quite soft. Shooting at f/10 gives you sufficient DoF for the snow the ball is sitting on to be in focus, which works well,

[Yuukon]

The lack of depth of field is natural and has much to do with the gear I used - Tamron AF SP 90mm F/2.8 Di VC USD Macro and APS-C body.
As for the PP, I flipped the image inside the ball and adjusted tonal contrast (only inside) using Nik Color Efex.

What you're saying makes me quite curious to what the original looks like. Could you share it?

[jordand]

This is the original ucropped unedited jpeg file. I produced the first one from the RAW file.

[Yuukon]

This is the original ucropped unedited jpeg file. I produced the first one from the RAW file.

Thanks for sharing! It helped me figure out what makes the ball look so flat in your edited version. In the original version, we can see the light reflected off the ball, as it wraps around it giving it its 3D effect. In your edited version, that's missing, making it look as though a flat circle has been stuck in the photograph. I think if you were to work out a way in which to include those 3D aspects from the original into your edited version, it would look a whole lot less flat and less photoshopped.

[DanK]

I agree with Yuukon. Perhaps you could keep a layer as in the original and paint back the curved highlights


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[Shadowman]

Nice shot.