Tulips

[ilovelucydog]

I've been fiddling around with this. What do you think? What needs to be done besides 'delete photo'? I've fiddled with textures etc., but just haven't found 'it' yet.

[MiniChris]

There is a huge amount of crudely constructed imagery following this note, but I think you will be able to get the gist of what I think your image needs...keeping in mind, of course, I am still a bit of a hack in PP work myself.

The biggest problem I have with the overall viewability of the flowers is all the dead space on the right side of the frame. I went in at first and just edited most of it away, but found the image still lacked a certain "punch." It wasn't any better, nor worse than in its natural state. Sooooooo, I isolated the flowers (crudely with the magic wand), gave it two gradient layers of dark green to transparent and one white to light green in the background...it's still not exactly what I think it needs, but I think it is on the right track...it needs something to kick it off the background other than pure, milky white.

[ilovelucydog]

I was working with textures and overlays because of the white. I used a white background with the intention of specific textures and overlays, but it aint working. Thanks for your comments and edit, I do value them a bunch.

[Katy Noelle]

I'm going to risk disagreeing, Chris, and say that, when I opened this thread up and saw the first photo - I gasped. I like it Mary. I like the space on the right and the freshness and the DOF. The colors, the lighting and the softness, too. I know that you asked for ideas for "something more" but it's awfully pretty how it is. Don't delete it! A use will come, I'm sure!

[ilovelucydog]

Thanks, Katy. It worked so perfectly in my head. I took about 85 images... I need a life.

[MiniChris]

At the risk of disagreeing with your disagreement, I have to ask what good toward the whole of the photo is that space providing....??? I can't find one single use for its existance, therefore, it has to go and I would even concede another 10-15% added back. It may be my background has counteracted her original softening intentions, however, it doesn't do anythign to make this photo zing....it is pretty and it has been made with intent, but as it stands, I find it very much like looking at someone with a lazy eye, and following it instead of the good eye.

[rob marshall]

Mary

Flower shots are incredibly difficult to do well. people think they are easy because they are available and they don't move (at least, not too much). Your shot needs more of a focus point for the viewers attantion. You either need to zoom in much closer and concentrate on detail, or, if you want a collection of flowers, they need to either all be in focus or have a clearer distinction between what is in focus, and what isn't. Have a look at my flower shots to see what I mean http://www.robmarshall.net/Images/Bo...00152594_PT2Qe

[jiro]

Mary, I hope you don't mind, I did some tweaking to your image and came up with this idea:



The problem is, I can't seem to duplicate the effect I did here due to numerous layers and masks that I applied to it! That's my problem whenever I work inside photoshop. My procedure always changes per image. Hope you like it.

[ilovelucydog]

Mary

Flower shots are incredibly difficult to do well. people think they are easy because they are available and they don't move (at least, not too much). Your shot needs more of a focus point for the viewers attantion. You either need to zoom in much closer and concentrate on detail, or, if you want a collection of flowers, they need to either all be in focus or have a clearer distinction between what is in focus, and what isn't. Have a look at my flower shots to see what I mean http://www.robmarshall.net/Images/Bo...00152594_PT2Qe

Thank you, Rob. Your images are amazing-thanks for the link. So far, I haven't found anything easy to capture whether it's moving or not. I'm struggling with what I see in my head, through the viewfinder and then what it is on the screen. I'm struggling with learning the lens. The lens I've been using is a 50mm 1.4 and I just can't get any consistency. More time. More practice.

[ilovelucydog]

Mary, I hope you don't mind, I did some tweaking to your image and came up with this idea:



The problem is, I can't seem to duplicate the effect I did here due to numerous layers and masks that I applied to it! That's my problem whenever I work inside photoshop. My procedure always changes per image. Hope you like it.

I like it! I love the colors and I love images with words. I know everyone doesn't, but I do. I'm the same with Photoshop. I do so much, and then can't remember what I did to do it again. But, it is fun.

[jiro]

I like it! I love the colors and I love images with words. I know everyone doesn't, but I do. I'm the same with Photoshop. I do so much, and then can't remember what I did to do it again. But, it is fun.

I'm glad you like it, Mary. I thought I'm the only forgetful person when it comes to working with photoshop.

[Sonic4Spuds]

I think a black stamped floral texture on only the white side of the picture would work very well, will try something today.

-Sonic

[ilovelucydog]

I think a black stamped floral texture on only the white side of the picture would work very well, will try something today.

-Sonic

I look forward to seeing it.

[mythlady]

Well, you knew I couldn't pass up this challenge, right? Mary, I like the picture very much. I sharpened the front flowers, then used three textures -- a slightly grungy pink one, a creamy one with a kind of "burnt" border, and then this very strange one that is black with white scratches, but which does very interesting things. With each of the textures, I brushed about half of it away from the three main flowers and a couple of the leaves right in front. And then, French being always more refined than English , I put "Printemps" on a text layer. (I'm not sure I like the text in pink, though.)



The textures are all from Kim Klassen. She has pretty good textures that she sells in little sets (maybe $4 to $10), but I haven't really bought any of them -- if you sign up on her blog, she sends a new one or two out every Friday for free. She also has online mini-courses that aren't terribly expensive, where she shows some of her techniques, and she's doing the smallest one for free, starting on March 21st. No, I don't receive a kickback from her

I don't know whether this is to your taste at all, but I thought I'd have a go at it. Thanks for sharing this picture -- I'm interested to see what Sonic does with the floral texture . . .

[tameigh]

I think bringing the saturation of the colors up a little goes a long way. I see that is part of what Wendy did, but I just did it here separately. I think it is a tiny bit over saturated in this example, but you get the idea. I opened the jpeg in ACR and brought up the saturation of the reds and magentas and greens.



I also think that the balance of saturation might be too far toward the yellow in this instance. But that is what is nice about ACR, is that you can play with it 'til you get it the way you want it.

[ilovelucydog]

Well, you knew I couldn't pass up this challenge, right? Mary, I like the picture very much. I sharpened the front flowers, then used three textures -- a slightly grungy pink one, a creamy one with a kind of "burnt" border, and then this very strange one that is black with white scratches, but which does very interesting things. With each of the textures, I brushed about half of it away from the three main flowers and a couple of the leaves right in front. And then, French being always more refined than English , I put "Printemps" on a text layer. (I'm not sure I like the text in pink, though.)



The textures are all from Kim Klassen. She has pretty good textures that she sells in little sets (maybe $4 to $10), but I haven't really bought any of them -- if you sign up on her blog, she sends a new one or two out every Friday for free. She also has online mini-courses that aren't terribly expensive, where she shows some of her techniques, and she's doing the smallest one for free, starting on March 21st. No, I don't receive a kickback from her

I don't know whether this is to your taste at all, but I thought I'd have a go at it. Thanks for sharing this picture -- I'm interested to see what Sonic does with the floral texture . . .

Beautiful, Elise. I just popped on to upload my image after working on it some more. I have a lot of Kim's textures. She does nice work and I have taken some of her courses, they are great. She is very easy to understand and follow along with. Your edit is verymuch my taste. Thanks!

[ilovelucydog]

This closer to what I had in my head, but still not exact. But, this is the direction anyway that I was heading. I know this type of edit isn't for everyone, but my dad always told me that I wasn't everyone else, I was me... so be home by 11:00... sorry, I got sidetracked.

[ilovelucydog]

I think bringing the saturation of the colors up a little goes a long way. I see that is part of what Wendy did, but I just did it here separately. I think it is a tiny bit over saturated in this example, but you get the idea. I opened the jpeg in ACR and brought up the saturation of the reds and magentas and greens.



I also think that the balance of saturation might be too far toward the yellow in this instance. But that is what is nice about ACR, is that you can play with it 'til you get it the way you want it.

Thanks, Tim. I like that.

[jiro]

This closer to what I had in my head, but still not exact. But, this is the direction anyway that I was heading.

It looks very nice to me.

[ilovelucydog]

It looks very nice to me.

Thanks, Jiro.