Posted by Anne K. Rusk on August 15, 2013 at 10:40 PM
It has been a crazy few weeks at my house and I haven't really been out shooting anything since May (house guests, traveling for work, traveling for family, more house guests, etc). Now that most of the chaos has died down, we went out to the sunflower fields to see what was happening and they did not disappoint! Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.
I hope you are all having enjoyable summers!
Posted by Phillip Noll on August 15, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Wow! This is gorgeous! I like the almost square crop too! Great job!
Posted by John Mumaw on August 15, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Yeah, what Phillip said! I love your choice of flowers to be front and center here while showing the huge field behind.
And of course the skies and mountains complement the flowers perfectly..
No suggestions from me, Anne. Excellent work!
Just an excellent comp and I like the framed opening to view the mountains and sunset. Gorgeous work!
Posted by Jared Warren on August 16, 2013 at 12:29 AM
Beautiful! Really nice comp- love it!
Posted by Jim Bennett on August 16, 2013 at 12:33 AM
Very nice! So would you mind letting us know where you found this great field? I know the fields that I shot in Longmont in the past were rotated to something else the following year.
Posted by Karl Buiter on August 16, 2013 at 5:24 AM
An excellent example of breaking some geometric rules in what is a geometric comp. Very nice.
I might have a small quibble with the darker cloud on the right - but its major surgery and why mess with Mother Nature.
Bravo.
(is it already Sunflower season once again?)
Posted by Doug Koepsel on August 16, 2013 at 9:11 AM
I like the differing heights of the foreground heads and that a few poke above the skyline. Maybe warm up the white balance of the flowers some?
Posted by Scott Bideau on August 16, 2013 at 10:12 AM
Great image. Agree the WB is off slightly.
Posted by Rick Decker on August 16, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Very nice work!!! I always have loved the sunflower fields and you have done a beautiful job in capturing them.
Posted by Don George on August 16, 2013 at 11:43 AM
Outstanding image.
Posted by Anne K. Rusk on August 16, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Thank you so much everyone! The fields are east of Denver. Please send me a message if you need specifics.
I'll take a look at the white balance. Just a quick question, is the wb off in the one at the top of the post or in the larger image? I only posted the larger image, the website compressed one down for the top of the post and I have noticed the colors are different.
This night was especially nice because there was no wind!
Thanks again!
Hi Anne, I find this image to be about perfect in my opinion. The comp and color are beautiful to my eye. I think White Balance is a personal thing especially when we're talking about slight bumps in warms or cools. If I pixel peep the big flower on the left seems to have a very slight halo in the clouds or mountains directly on the horizon only. If you pixel peep the pedals on the left side of the big flower, you can see about a half stop bump up in exposure in the darker mountains and clouds. Compression combined with thumbnails images will bring out opportunities to better blend scenes . Possibly a slight blend? If not, then throw me to the wolves!
Posted by Anne K. Rusk on August 17, 2013 at 11:20 AM
Ken, this is one image! I did bracket so I had plenty of options when I got home, but it wasn't necessary, thankfully. One of the things that I totally love about the 800 :-)
Thanks for the "pixel peeping", Kane! That is my new favorite term! I'll revisit the halo. When I was processing I kept going back to that because it appears when I lighten the shadows, not from dodging. I'll see what I can do to burn it down ever so slightly. Since it is all from one image, it should be an easier fix. I couldn't tell if I was being hypercritical so I am glad you mentioned it, too!!
Posted by Don Grall on August 17, 2013 at 11:33 AM
Posted by John Mumaw on August 17, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Re: WB. If the sun was at your back, then I could see warming up the flowers just a taste. But if the sun set in front of you, then this looks good as is. And I think that it really looks good, but a quick experiment never hurt.
Congratulations again on capturing such a fine image!
Posted by Bob Maynard on August 21, 2013 at 6:18 PM
I love it that you didn't try to do anything with the one sticking up. For me, that one makes the pic.
Discussion
19 repliesI hope you are all having enjoyable summers!
And of course the skies and mountains complement the flowers perfectly..
No suggestions from me, Anne. Excellent work!
An excellent example of breaking some geometric rules in what is a geometric comp. Very nice.
I might have a small quibble with the darker cloud on the right - but its major surgery and why mess with Mother Nature.
Bravo.
(is it already Sunflower season once again?)
I'll take a look at the white balance. Just a quick question, is the wb off in the one at the top of the post or in the larger image? I only posted the larger image, the website compressed one down for the top of the post and I have noticed the colors are different.
This night was especially nice because there was no wind!
Thanks again!
Thanks for the "pixel peeping", Kane! That is my new favorite term! I'll revisit the halo. When I was processing I kept going back to that because it appears when I lighten the shadows, not from dodging. I'll see what I can do to burn it down ever so slightly. Since it is all from one image, it should be an easier fix. I couldn't tell if I was being hypercritical so I am glad you mentioned it, too!!
Congratulations again on capturing such a fine image!