post-processing soft flowers

[echoyjeff222]

I've been browsing the macro section on 500px lately, and I love the soft, painterly processing that a lot of the photos have (Example below). Does anyone know good tutorials to achieve this look?

Deep pink by Fl vio Silva 500px

 

[The_Traveler]

using wide apertures thus giving very shallow depth of field.

 

[echoyjeff222]

using wide apertures thus giving very shallow depth of field.

it has to be more than that ... there's some PP going on with the extreme softness

 

[dennybeall]

Use PS and select the center of the flower then invert the selection. Apply filters to soften the selection.

 

[echoyjeff222]

Use PS and select the center of the flower then invert the selection. Apply filters to soften the selection.

Is it just the soften function, or are there other filter functions that work better?

 

[table1349]

using wide apertures thus giving very shallow depth of field.

it has to be more than that ... there's some PP going on with the extreme softness

Yes there is. When traveler said wide apertures he meant WIDE apertures. as in f1.2, 1.4 on something like an 100mm lens. At f1.4 at 6 feet the DOF is 0.06 feet. Lenses that are very fast are not cheap.

 

[Derrel]

There is a sort of sub-genre of flower and nature macro photography where REALLY fast-aperture lenses, like lenses salvaged from old photocopiers, for example, are often used. We're talking ultra-fast aperture lenses in the f/0.95 to f/0.75 range, which are hacked and mounted onto various d-slr cameras, and the ethereal, gauzy look in the out of focus areas looks almost exactly like in that sample photo you linked us to.

About ten years ago, this oscilloscope lens/photocopier lens flower macro craze was in full swing, and there were a lot of people buying these lenses and showing sample images on the web. I have not seen many of these types of images recently, but the look is unmistakable. VERY sharp in the focus plane, and then lots of very shallow, and very defocused area, with that amazing, almost glowing, ethereal blur over large,large parts of the frame! Sooo beautiful!!!

 

[dennybeall]

Also looks like a layer of bubbles overlaid on part of the picture. Lots of layers I'd say. I've read about some artistic picture efforts that included 4 or 5 times as many layers as I'd have thought at first glance.

 

[JustJazzie]

I was wondering if wide apertures were it when I opened this eirlier. My first thought when I saw the photo was of these pictures, and a few other from the same artist (I had to track it down on my Flickr favorits album) which We're all taken with at f1.0.
Sunny morning Flickr - Photo Sharing
In the grass Flickr - Photo Sharing

It's such a memorable effect!

 

[echoyjeff222]

Use PS and select the center of the flower then invert the selection. Apply filters to soften the selection.

Is this any different than using soften brush in LR?

 

[table1349]

17 Beautiful Images with Shallow Depth of Field - Digital Photography School

 

[Derrel]

Using Ultra-Fast Lenses on DSLR Cameras

Also, search using this string: using oscilloscope lenses for macro

 

[TCampbell]

I don't think this is just a shallow depth of field... there's some photoshop magic going on here. If it were just a shallow depth of field then we should be able to identify a few other areas at similar focus distance that should appear sharp.

I'm not particularly good at this sort of thing, but I have done some similar things with the Photoshop lens blur filter.

You'll need to clone the base image.
Put the "clone" of the base on top of the base.
Apply a lens-blur filter to the clone.

You'll now have a blurry image (with a clear image behind it -- but you can't see it because it's behind it.)

Now you'll need to create a layer mask for the blurred image where you clear away the spot in the middle that you want to appear "sharp". This cleared spot reveals the sharp image behind. As you clear it, you adjust the opacity using a soft brush so that it's completely clear in the center and progressively less clear as it blends to the blurred layer.

 

[dennybeall]

Here's one application of the technique used in a photo to commemorate my recently deceased Sheltie, Merlot.