We took a road trip to visit a friend in St. Louis but our planned excursion was closed due to storm damage. So yesterday we ended up at the Missouri Botanical Garden with not nearly enough time. We're all photo enthusiasts but between the three of us we have a Pentax, Canon, and Nikon dSLR. Not to mention we're in the TV, Radio, and IT fields so there's a variety of differences when it comes to the mindset of photography (and that makes it a lot of fun).

Anyway, I spent the day with my macro lens although not all photos were macro shots. While these are my best with cropping and minimal color correction, I'm still working on one of my favorite which I'm having trouble with (I'll post later). Anyway, constructive criticism is welcome as I'm just a hobbist and have lots of room for improvement.


Missouri Botanical Garden | Flickr

[monochrome]

We took a road trip to visit a friend in St. Louis but our planned excursion was closed due to storm damage. So yesterday we ended up at the Missouri Botanical Garden with not nearly enough time. We're all photo enthusiasts but between the three of us we have a Pentax, Canon, and Nikon dSLR. Not to mention we're in the TV, Radio, and IT fields so there's a variety of differences when it comes to the mindset of photography (and that makes it a lot of fun).

Anyway, I spent the day with my macro lens although not all photos were macro shots. While these are my best with cropping and minimal color correction, I'm still working on one of my favorite which I'm having trouble with (I'll post later). Anyway, constructive criticism is welcome as I'm just a hobbist and have lots of room for improvement.


Missouri Botanical Garden | Flickr

One of my favorite places, but in summer the days are so long it is hard to get soft light. Once a month MBG stays open until sunset - 8:30pm or so - but it is mobbed with photographers.

I think especially your treatments of the Water Lillies nicely capture the delicate bursts of color against the dark water and green leaves. If you happen to visit St. Louis again try to shoot at MBG on one of the evenings when the Chihuly Glass is lit or during the Orchid Show for your macros.

What was damaged? Of course we have near record flooding ATM and the just-rehabbed Gateway Arch Trams are closed due to water in the departure areas - did you miss the trip to the top?

[RGlasel]

Lots of interesting photos, I especially like the water lilies (and the tiny frog!). A few of your posted photos could stand better lighting, but that isn't always under your control. I find macro photography pretty challenging myself, I think you did well. One last thing, you can embed your Flickr photos in your post here; even if you don't want to link all 22 pictures, a couple of your favorites would be nice to give us an idea what we can expect to find from you on Flickr.

[jspi]

We planned to visit the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri which has storm damage and is now closed.

Yes, I know I can post links but that failed last time I tried. And I was tired.

Yes, lighting could be better in some. I guess I was tired and in a hurry to post and get some sleep. Also, I kept it at ISO200 most of the time.

Speaking of lighting, it was over cast all day. It rained a little when we showed up which is where the water drops came from in some photos. Some indoor shots used a flash. I thought Flickr showed that info but it looks like I need to make it public.

[jspi]

So here's the one I'm having trouble with...

The JPG wasn't what I wanted so it has been adjusted in RawTherapee. I previously tried in Photoshop but wasn't happy with it either.
_IMG7373_b | Original RAW adjusted in RawTherapee. | jaster131 | Flickr


This took a while but I created a two new layers in Photoshop. On the first layer, I used Edge Detect and created a mask of the bloom from that. Moved the mask to the second layer. The bloom was blown out so it was darkened to reveal detail and water droplets. Then the rest of the image was lightened to show the reflection and the rest of the background.
_IMG7373 | jaster131 | Flickr

Can't say I'm happy with either. The colors are better in the Photoshop one but...
1. The background is grainy (I may be able to smooth that out).
2. There's a light outline of the bloom which makes it jump out from the image.

The one only adjusted in RAW looks natural but I'd still like to lighten the background.

Not really a question there but curious if I just need to spend more time on it or if I went the wrong direction. Instead of the edge detect, I originally tried to use the select tool which was a horrible failure. When I discovered edge detect, the job got drastically easier.

[RGlasel]

Can't say I'm happy with either. The colors are better in the Photoshop one but...1. The background is grainy (I may be able to smooth that out).2. There's a light outline of the bloom which makes it jump out from the image.

At small sixes, the brightness of the second picture makes it more appealing. It's only when I zoom in that I can see what you are less than 100% happy about. Sometimes I find adjusting the brightness and contrast of the entire image works better than trying to do the same thing with just a portion of the image. Even if your mask is accurate to the thickness of a single pixel, adjustments to just the masked area can look artificial. In this image, if the water ends up overexposed, it makes it look naturally sunnier than it really is, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.