Delphinium midnight

Gallery: FloraPosted February 8, 201143 views8 comments

Good day, Eh! Here is a shot taken with an old Canon Xsi, now retired to the field work only, and a new (at the time) 100 mm macro. This is a nice delphinium in my garden, shot at f/7.1 1/60 sec, ISO 400, 100mm and it was sharp and very vibrant. I processed it by darkening using control points, for the background which was way too bright, IMO, and then softening the subject in Nic Efex midnite and glamour glo. Question, is glamour glo an excuse for smoothing and fogging something that would otherwise just be called OOF, or is it really a nice art application for photography?

Your comments and criticism would be most welcome.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on February 8, 2011 at 3:33 PM

Katherine, my guess is you answered your own question by posting this in flora rather than photo art.

I like the color and tone of the image, and the composition is spot on. The dark background is suitable to the comp. The top blossoms appear to be over sharpened to me, and it appears you used the glamor glo on the lower foreground blossom. I have been schooled so many times here about over processing that I hate to inflict it on anyone, but this seems over done. It is a good shot and I think can be better by not quite so much application of effects.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on February 8, 2011 at 6:05 PM

Kat: I like the overall presentation and your processing looks pretty good on my laptop. I do like your DOF management especially and think you did a great job with the BG.>=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on February 8, 2011 at 6:46 PM

Katherine:
Nicely captured flowers and pp. The darkening of bg works well. Wish the blooms were a little brighter; increasing the luminosity of the flowers will really make these pop.

Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on February 8, 2011 at 7:19 PM

KatherineAnne,

I like this pretty much as posted. I do like Gary's idea of brightening the petals but I like dark images and this works as posted for me with the exceptions of the blocked centers of the blooms. I'd probably try to bring some detail out in those areas unless you just don't want the detail. (might also be my macbook monitor)

I'm not a fan of NIK glamor glow but prefer to do my own Ortonizing and contrast adjustments. It gives me more control or at least I think it does. I do use most of the NIK filters from time to time though. However, I tend to avoid any of them that introduce blur preferring to do that myself. Basically, I think it's up to you. If you like the look, then by all means you should feel free to use it. I've just never been able to get glamor glow to do what I want it to do.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on February 8, 2011 at 10:21 PM

Very nice image. I really like the color.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Krunal Janani on February 9, 2011 at 9:09 AM

I quite like the image as it is Katherine

Registered on September 16, 2010, 60 Posts, 1370 Comments

Comment posted by KatherineAnne Enns on February 9, 2011 at 5:47 PM

Thank you SO much everyone Very usefull suggestions, and I will take these further into my next project.

kat

Registered on January 5, 2011, 22 Posts, 137 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on February 10, 2011 at 4:39 AM

I like this enormously, Katherine. Philip's point about oversharpening also occurred briefly to me but, on the other hand, delphiniums do have a very rich texture, and I like the look of these. I have no problem with the processing techniques - if they help ( and they seem to me to help here ) use them !

Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments