Yes there really are flowers this color. Straight out of the camera, ACR defaults, converted directly to jpeg, resized for the web being the only processing. DS, pentax SMC 135 F2.5. 1/125 aperture unknown


NaCl(some of these tropical water lilies are amazing)H2O

As always, a great flower shot with beautiful color.

[JMR]

I take it those are roots that look like streaks of light? I only suggest that you not place the flower directly in the centre of the photo. Perhaps take 1-1/2inches off the left side and crop just below the flower petal and you will see that the flower is well placed and the roots help take you through the rest of the image. But I love your colour and contrast, and of course the flower itself is well exposed.

JMR

[Ole]

Nice, looks if there's a light source within the flower! A vertical crop would make wonders!

[NaClH2O]

Hi JMR,
I wanted to submit the shot exactly as it came out of the camera. If I was going to do some processing on it I would have cropped it a bit off center, ran some shadow/highlight curves on it and prolly played a bit with the mid level contrast. The "streaks of light" are either stems heading down or leaves that haven't reached the surface yet. The tropical water lilies have such vibrant color that I've been accused of bumping up the saturation levels too high. The truth of the matter is, I very rarely play with color at all, sometimes I use contrast curves to "pop" it a bit.

NaCl(I consider manipulating the color levels on florals a kind of 'cheating' )H2O

[countzero]

I know it's kind of rude to post a photo on someone else's thread, but the title compelled me:

[NaClH2O]

Here's a shot that I did do a bit of processing on. Adjusted exposure, shadow, contrast and brightness curves in ACR, and then opened it in PSE 3, cropped resized, and played a bit with the shadow/highlight sliders and the mid contrast slider. No manipulation of colors at all, and as you can see they are still close to being saturated. The early morning light helps and hinders as it both 'pops' the colors a bit and makes it difficult to avoid over exposed highlights. DS Tamron 90mm macro, f8 at 1/125


NaCl(what you see is almost what you get)H2O

[LaRee]

Beautiful image. I love the background and the light on the flower is excellent. Can't beat that for a shot straight out of the box!

[little laker]

Beautiful like always Salty,

If KEH has one I'll be getting one of those Pentax 135 F2.5's shortly after the holiday (but too late for my trip)

[NaClH2O]

Thanks LaRee, coming from you high praise indeed, I always love your florals.

Stu, you won't be disappointed. Took me a little while to get a hang on it's quirks (so what else is new?) But once I did I've found it to be one of my favs. It has great contrast and superb contrast.

NaCl(as they say "it gets the job done" )H2o

[Marc Langille]

Fantastic colors...!! Beautiful flower, and such clarity!

Hmmm, do I REALLY need another lens...

Cheers,
Marc

[NaClH2O]

Fantastic colors...!! Beautiful flower, and such clarity!

Hmmm, do I REALLY need another lens...

Cheers,
Marc

Marc...thanks! High praise indeed coming from you. I've always admired your work. Talk to anybody who has one, and they'll say that the SMC 135 F2.5 is one of their favs. Typical of the "old" pentax glass, moderately heavy, wonderfully dampened focus ring and, as you can see sharp, and great contrast and color. And did I mention that it can readily be found for not too much money? I would say its greatest failing is that its minimum focus is about 1.5m. But I must admit I like the 135mm reach. And it's also very well balanced on the K10D. Another shot and one from Sean (carpents) can be found here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-your-photos/14695-why-i-like-smc-135mm-f2-5-a.html

NaCl(not a lot to dislike about this lens)H2O