I was fooling around with a bouquet of flowers that my husband brought home for me. I had a great time as I love taking photos of flowers. I have many that I like from the series, but I thought I would post this one here and see what you guys think of it. I did some heavy pp on this one to change it completely from what it was. Obviously I like the results or I wouldn't be sharing it, but I am interested to hear what you think.

k20d, DA35, f/18, 1/3 sec. iso 400

[gawan]

LaRee, that is great! I like the darkish mood it has!

[JMR]

Yes, it is wonderful. I like the gradations in tone and color from whites to yellows, light to dark and back again. I think it may look even better a little lighter overall while maintaining the subtle tonal gradations.

JMR

[Peter Zack]

I like the tonal quality, maybe a touch dark but very good.

[monochrome]

What do I think?

Print, Frame, Hang.

[Jimbo]

Beautiful shot LaRee.. Maybe a little more light but wouldn't change it much! JIM

[Marc Langille]

I think just a tad more light to separate it from the background, but that's it. Very nice tonal gradations!

[Sailor]

I don't know how you can PP and get results this great. My stuff never shows up on the forum the way it looks in print.

Your shot is wonderful - how do you do it?

Jer

[slowpez]

I love it just the way it is. Those first petals seem to be growing out of the black background and then changing in a wonderful gradation to gray then white. Lovely.

[hamidlmt]

I really like this! At first glance, I noticed the composition, which is obviously quite strong. But, I was disappointed, as I felt it was underexposed. But, I kept looking and began to really appreciate the somber tones and the muted hues. So many go for the pop of over-saturation and I feel this is a nice example of understatement so often saying far, far more.

on a side note: good man, your husband. : )

[cupic]

Very dramtic and good composition


cheers

[LaRee]

Thank you Georg, JMR, Peter, Jimbo, Marc, slopez and cupic for your comments.
Monocrome, I think I will print this up and see how it looks on paper. Thank you.
Jer, I think Lightroom has really expanded my pp desire and abilities too. Except I am very put off with the recent upgrade. It has such severe memory leaks that I had to uninstall and roll back to version 2.1. Adobe has botched every single "upgrade" they've released to Lightroom. But the last one was the worst for everyone!
Hamid, my husband really is a great guy. He can be kinda grumpy at times. His nickname at work is grumpy. But he makes up for it in lots of ways.

I processed the original photo in Lightroom only. Adjusted exposure and did my basic pp and ran COL fried eggs preset filter and adjusted the effects. Here is one that I pushed the exposure more on to lighten it. I do like the overall effect but I don't like that the overall adjustments brings more pink into the back petals. The noise is increased too from the push. If I was good, I could open up my Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and use an adjustment layer, mask off the background petals etc., but working around those petals could be more tedious than I'm up for.
In any case, here it is a little lighter.


Your feedback is much appreciated!

[Jimbo]

His nickname at work is grumpy

Funny, that's what my daughter calls me and I even have a hat from her that keeps reminding me. Yes us old guys can get grumpy sometimes but on a cold winter night we come in handy!!! Like the updated one LaRee.. JIMBO

[JMR]

I really like this! At first glance, I noticed the composition, which is obviously quite strong. But, I was disappointed, as I felt it was underexposed. But, I kept looking and began to really appreciate the somber tones and the muted hues. So many go for the pop of over-saturation and I feel this is a nice example of understatement so often saying far, far more.

on a side note: good man, your husband. : )

Hamidlmt, I quite agree, there is a tendency to like overly saturated images that pop. But it is a fine line between underexposure and low key subtle images. In the end, one has to decide whether the image works or not, no matter how much it is PP. IMO, one should go with the quality and kind of light in combination with subject matter and allow them to determine which way an image should go.

JMR

[JMR]

Thank you Georg, JMR, Peter, Jimbo, Marc, slopez and cupic for your comments.
edit [snip]...
Your feedback is much appreciated!

I like the second much better, even though it loses its more subtle look. Why? Because, it seems to me it is the quality and kind of light that determines the way the photo should come out. It looks like strong directional light and so this makes it more difficult to impart a low key look if that is what you are looking for.

JMR