Red Tulips

You knocked this opne out of the park Pat!! Absolutely beautifully composed and exposed. Real eye candy.

Great shot- Elegant, graphic composition and excellent treatment of light- A classy flora photography, Fabio

So lovely and thank you for the tips!

Very artistic comp and color.

Beautiful lighting and sharpness.

You put in a lot of work with good results. I looked through your workflow—did you come on this by trial and error, or was it from a sketched out plan deduced a priori? However you came on it, I would stick with it—really stand out results!

Thanks for the comments you all.

Phil,

At this point the flow is largely a priori. I generally know what I want to do for these types of set shots - either stacks or scans. The same is true for landscapes and avian too but the workflow is different between the two. This workflow originally grew out of working with stacks and from having played with the Flaming Pear Mr. Contrast filter for a couple of years. More recently, I've just been trying to figure out how to emulate Feinstein's look with my scans. I still don't have that right and am working it.

The truth of the matter is that If I'm shooting outdoors I'd rather shoot wildlife or landscapes than flora - at least usually. I enjoy the hunting aspect of capturing the wildlife. I do enjoy photographing trees and I do that a lot but I rarely have anything that I think is worth keeping or showing. I tend to avoid gardens and people like the plague. The thing I enjoy most about photography is the solitude - with the exception of Terri of course.

pat

Another awesone image. I like the highlight on the BRC of the vase, it upsets the symetry just enough......
I'd like to be a fly on the wall from capture to output while you're creating one of these.

Pat very nice processing. The chiarscuro effect is wonderful. Thanks for the tutorial. Always nice to understand how somelse processes their images. Many ways to achieve similar results so it's interesting to understand where someone is coming from.
Question: is the brushed metal texture applied to the whole image or just masked for the blooms?

The only suggestions would have been to have a little more of the vase reflection on the table. I think that is a very supportive element to the overall image.
Not too much of the blue green cast on this image which is better for my tastes.

Bob,

In this case I did the entire image but then took the opacity on the layer down to about 30 percent.

Thanks for letting me know that you like the reflection. I do too. The problem for me when the image has this aspect ratio is trying to get flowers large enough to show. I try to crop as much as possible and I also want to try and make sure that the emphasis stays on the greenery and blooms. The next one of these I do, I'll increase the reflection size.

pat

Pat, I love this, especially the reflection. I think the amount included here is perfect for my taste; just enough to show that the vase is, in fact, sitting on a surface, not floating in air. I bet this would be so special to see in print. Beautiful work as always!

Artistically beautiful Pat

Listen to me very carefully, Pat. Quit your day job!

Pat: Just a marvelous result and a joy to view. Your mastery of the software really lets you get the most of your captures. Superbly crafted image. >=))>

PS: Thanks for the workflow tutorial.

Such gorgeous lighting, Pat.
Simple and very elegant presentation.

Beautifully composed with painterly light applied by an artist's eye.

Ken S

Wow!!

Thanks for posting your workflow description....alot went into creating this effect and it was well worth it.

I love your vases. I love the reflection on the table. What a pretty shot Pat. The three tulips together works really well. I missed some tulips that looked a bit like this at Costco the other day. I got some others at the grocery store, so I am going to try them tomorrow. My shots will not be this nice, though...Excellent.

Nathan

Beautiful Pat.

Hi Pat Been admiring this presentation for some time, it leaves me spellbound The quality of color and light is astounding
Albert Darmo. Canada

A beautiful work, Pat; as usual. I like the idea of showing the reflection of the vase but not the plane of reflection. Thanks for sharing the interesting WF in the Flora forum.
Cheers.