[twokatmew]

I just got this lens yesterday and took it and my tripod out in the garden today. Not sure which I prefer, the original or the desaturated. Shutter speed is actually 1/160s, but it's not available in the drop-down list. I'm also drawing a blank on what this flower is.... Help me out please?

[yeatzee]

Desaturate for me.

I would add more light with a flash to the front side of the flower personally.

[twokatmew]

Sorry, removed double post.

[twokatmew]

Desaturate for me.

I would add more light with a flash to the front side of the flower personally.

Thanks. And yes, I do need to learn how to properly use my ring flash!

Oops, I just realize I have one too many zeros in the lens name. It's actually the DFA 100/2.8 WR....

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Last edited by twokatmew; 06-14-2010 at 06:14 AM. Reason: correct lens name

[mapleneckblues]

hands down desaturate for me.

[twokatmew]

hands down desaturate for me.

Thanks. I'm liking the desaturated more myself.

I think this is a dwarf yellow Marigold, but I'm not sure. Can anyone confirm?

[Miguel]

I would suggest a different type of improvement for your image. Neither of these renderings work with the inherent limitations and strengths of the shot.

There are few basic issues here. The first is the color. This type of yellow is quite challenging for most DSLR sensors to reproduce artfully. In addition, the lighting is on the flat side, especially as the eye heads toward the center of the image from the left side of the frame.

Thirdly because a fairly shallow DOF was used, the petals toward the outside of the flower are more out of focus. Sometimes that's quite OK, but in this instance the ones that are (at 7 o'clock and 10 o'clock especially) distract from the strengths of the shot, which highlights the form of the flower. With more contrasted lighting the water drops could have been leveraged more strongly, but that's not to be.

So to go softer overall, transform the color to something more impactful, and still convey the glory of the flower, I'd suggest you try a more high key rendering. The softer parts blend together better into a more impressionistic whole.

If you don't mind, I grabbed your image and have this as an example. In Lightroom one can easily change the amount of vignetting as well as color balances.



Hope this helps trigger more ideas.

M

[twokatmew]

I would suggest a different type of improvement for your image. Neither of these renderings work with the inherent limitations and strengths of the shot.

There are few basic issues here. The first is the color. This type of yellow is quite challenging for most DSLR sensors to reproduce artfully. In addition, the lighting is on the flat side, especially as the eye heads toward the center of the image from the left side of the frame.

Thirdly because a fairly shallow DOF was used, the petals toward the outside of the flower are more out of focus. Sometimes that's quite OK, but in this instance the ones that are (at 7 o'clock and 10 o'clock especially) distract from the strengths of the shot, which highlights the form of the flower. With more contrasted lighting the water drops could have been leveraged more strongly, but that's not to be.

So to go softer overall, transform the color to something more impactful, and still convey the glory of the flower, I'd suggest you try a more high key rendering. The softer parts blend together better into a more impressionistic whole.

If you don't mind, I grabbed your image and have this as an example. In Lightroom one can easily change the amount of vignetting as well as color balances.

Hope this helps trigger more ideas.

M

Thanks very much for your comments, Miguel! I don't mind your working on my photo at all. I learn a lot from reading comments on others' photos as well as my own, and I really appreciate your taking the time to critique the shot.

At first when I looked at your rendition of my photo, I thought it was way overexposed, but after looking at it again, I find it quite interesting. The color is certainly more pleasing. I guess next time I'll try a smaller aperture and more light. (?)

Thanks again!

[kmwsbabe]

I love the desat and Miguel's play. Lovely photo!

[twokatmew]

Thank you! Now I just need a sturdier ball head for my tripod. The current one has a bit of lens droop with this lens even without the ring flash....

[JesseDavis]

I cant really agree with Miguel here. Although his process gives a very pleasing color, it washes out the form of the flower, and further de-accentuates the water droplets which are just okay in the color original and really nicely accentuated in the desaturated shot, which also pops the texture of the petals and their form.

Instead of desaturating, try a B/W conversion or channel mixing equivalent of a red or yellow filter, and then use another (maybe inverted) B/W conversion with different settings copied to a channel to mask out your original black and white and bring back some colors in a muted way, and with control for later, while still preserving the droplets' pop. I've just done this twice in CS4 but it crashed on me both times! sorry!

[twokatmew]

I cant really agree with Miguel here. Although his process gives a very pleasing color, it washes out the form of the flower, and further de-accentuates the water droplets which are just okay in the color original and really nicely accentuated in the desaturated shot, which also pops the texture of the petals and their form.

Instead of desaturating, try a B/W conversion or channel mixing equivalent of a red or yellow filter, and then use another (maybe inverted) B/W conversion with different settings copied to a channel to mask out your original black and white and bring back some colors in a muted way, and with control for later, while still preserving the droplets' pop. I've just done this twice in CS4 but it crashed on me both times! sorry!

Thanks for your comments! I too like the detail in the desaturated version, though I do like the more muted yellow in Miguel's version. I'm pretty new at working with Photoshop and haven't yet done any masking. So I've got an interesting project before me. It sure would be nice if I could have that more muted yellow but keep the detail of the desaturation. Sorry CS4 crashed on you - I do appreciate your taking the time to help me.