What’s Your Preference?

Penny · #1 (**permalink**) 06-27-2007, 05:56 PM

I would value comments and constructive critism on this image.

Farkled · #2 (**permalink**) 06-27-2007, 06:52 PM

Very Pretty Shot. I especially like the color contrast. Focus & DoF are just fine.

I think (just IMO), that for this shot, the background either needs to go away or be turned into black or neutral gray. The greens and yellows there just don't the help the image for me.

stevesutt89 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-27-2007, 11:52 PM

Agreed, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the flower in this shot, but its the white background that gets me. I think that because thet bacground i white, it give the shot a 'fake' feel, as if you've taken it into a studio and shot it there instead of where it was growing. Now, I know you didn't do this as we can see the other greenery down the bottom, but what i think this shot needs is a natural looking background--something with very out of focus greens and yellows. To do this you could reshoot from a different angle, or just take and oof shot of some greenery and paste it into the back of the image in photoshop. I don't know whether this is right, but thats just my opinion.

Penny · #4 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 06:47 AM

Farkled and Stevesutt89 - Thank you both for your comments. I agree about the b/g and would love to change it - just don't have the Photoshop skills to do so!! Do you know of a tutorial that might set me on the right path? Thanks for your interest!
Penny

wulf · #5 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 07:13 AM

One solution when taking the shot is to place or hold something suitably coloured in the background to cut out distractions and give a suitable colour. Keep it a reasonable distance from the subject and it should be nicely out of focus and not distracting.

However, I have to say that I found the velvety texture you captured on the flower so jaw-dropping that I wasn't bothered by the background or even too inclined to trot out my regular framing-fu!

A beautiful flower and you have captured the light on it brilliantly.

Wulf

Penny · #6 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 10:32 AM

Hi Guys - I had a couple of goes at this!

First I reshot against a new background
Here

Then I tried to replace the b/g on the original
here

I'm not happy with either of them!! Lots to learn

Penny · #7 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 10:36 AM

Wulf - thanks for the advice and the VERY kind comments!!

wulf · #8 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 11:17 AM

What you need to work on is getting a suitable mask to separate the subject from the background. On your digital version, there is a clear white line round most of the subject that ruins the illusion.

Rather than a mask that is purely black and white, it needs to have some greys, which make the pixels they affect translucent, blending the edge with the background. How much translucency depends on the subject - something soft and diaphanous like hair can be very difficult to deal with.

One trick that gives you a head start is to decompose the layer into separate colour channels. I broke your picture in to RGB channels and discovered that the green one gave the best separation of gladiolus from background. I took a copy of that and, using the curves tool, increased the contrast. That gave me a fairly good mask and then a couple of minutes with the paint brush yielded the one shown below.

Zoom in and you will see that the borders have got various shades of grey and the join between the flower and any choice of background will be much harder to spot.

Wulf

jiminyClickit · #9 (**permalink**) 06-28-2007, 01:21 PM

Penny,

wulf said "jaw-dropping" and "captured . . . brilliantly." Those are worth ten "Great PP skills." And you can get backgrounds that will rival anyone's, whether it's thru wulf's tutoring or discovering something new on your own. For now, the flower's very proud.