03-25-09 – Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Forums Forums Farktography General Chat This week’s contest 03-25-09 – Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 80 total)
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  • #21301
    jpatten
    Participant

    You really cant tell from the size I posted, but there are pink lines running down all the petals.

    #21302
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    Hmmmm not sure if I like the first one enough…. maybe I should have used an alternate…..Oh well.

    I like it, but if you would truly rather post something different, you can post something else and request the other deleted up until the contest posts.

    Btw, how’d you do the lighting on your 3/3 and get the background so dark? Lighting at night?

    #21303
    jpatten
    Participant

    Its all Contrast and brightness adjustments… The water it was in was quite dark and not reflecting any light really from the angle I was at. No breeze at all. So I pushed up the contrast and hit the brightness and saturation to bring out the flower while cutting the background. It was taken at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The sun had popped out and I managed to get an angle where the sun wasn’t reflecting off the water.

    #21304
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    Ohhhh the more you know!

    #21305
    jpatten
    Participant

    I honestly was very suprised I was able to make the water disappear like that!! I am not complaining but I love how it turned out. It ranks in my top 10… probably top 5

    #21306
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    yeah that’s cool. You weren’t actually cutting it out of the background, right, just boosting the brightness and contrast on the flower itself? It was a good use of the angle with the water.

    #21307
    jpatten
    Participant

    No I didnt’ cut it out. I can post the original if there is doubt!

    #21308
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    No, no I believe you! 😆 I’ve seen similar shots done in daylight, and I’ve never figured out how it was done. My night shot of the magnolia flower that’s in my stream is the closest I’ve come to that kind of lighting–using flash at night to recreate the look. But it doesn’t really look the same.

    #21309
    jpatten
    Participant

    Yeah I saw those. Well done, but I think that nothing quite matches real sunlight. Of course I admit that I still don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time, even less when that one was taken. If nothing else I have learned a lot more about Post processing to bring out the best in my pictures.

    #21310
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    I’ve actually seen really well done lighting that does come at least pretty darn close to the real thing; I’m just not that skilled 😆 Good post-processing skills definitely come in handy, though.

    #21311
    sleeping
    Participant

    To get a black background you don’t need pure black, just need a sufficient brightness difference to exceed the dynamic range of your camera, so you can do it if you can find a subject in bright sun against a background that’s in deep shade. Locating a framing without extraneous bits of sunlight in the background isn’t always easy though.

    #21312
    pangolyn
    Participant

    my monitor is having a seizure from all the color in this week’s contest. Good job to everyone!

    #21313
    lokisbong
    Participant

    my monitor is having a seizure from all the color in this week’s contest. Good job to everyone!

    Makes me glad I have a nice newish flat panel lcd monitor. Awesome amounts of color. A lot of really nice pictures for sure.

    #21314
    Elsinore
    Keymaster

    To get a black background you don’t need pure black, just need a sufficient brightness difference to exceed the dynamic range of your camera, so you can do it if you can find a subject in bright sun against a background that’s in deep shade. Locating a framing without extraneous bits of sunlight in the background isn’t always easy though.

    Thank you for that explanation–made total sense!

    #21315
    Choc-Ful-A
    Participant

    I feel like I overdosed on saturated colors after reviewing (and voting) tonight. Lots of the photos tonight practically jumped off the monitor and smacked you in the face. I’d love to see this theme get repeated as a “classic”.

    I had lots of b-sides this time (there’s a gallery here if you need more flower mojo). But there’s one I wanted to call out. I took a picture of a vibrant light purple daisy shaped flower on a drive in southern California last fall. It’s very small and bobbed around in the breeze. So I just concentrated on getting part of the flower in focus and moved on. I didn’t see the “bonus” creature behind the petals until I opened the image on my computer. I think there’s a spider waiting to ambush the next hapless insect that lands on the flower. You can see two long legs spreading out from behind one petal. Maybe it’s doing that to sense vibrations on the adjacent petals? And I would never have noticed if I didn’t take the picture.

    I didn’t submit it cause the explanation required is pretty long and it sort of detracts from the flower itself. So I’ll save it for another theme, but wanted to mention it here for your amusement in the meantime.

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 80 total)
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