Purple

jcdeboever

Been spending a lot of time on here!
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IMG_8138.jpg
 
More magenta, really. I like the idea, but I have two suggestions: (1) decrease the saturation (preferably on a raw file) - you have areas that have no detail because the entire area is at the limit of the color gamut so there is no color variation; normally color variation provides detail and texture; and (2) crop some off the top - the gap between petals upper right and the petal edge in the upper left corner both draw my eye up and away from the more interesting stuff. I also might play with darkening the petal along the right edge a bit.
 
Nice shot. I agree with KenC about cropping a little off the top. Just a general observation about flower photography: Years ago a friend of mine who was a master at image correction for a major printer in NYC noticed some lobelia I had growing along my driveway. I always admired the intense purple of the flowers. He observed, "That's not reproducible in a photo; too much ultra violet is coming off the flower, which makes the impact so great when you see it."
 
Can't find the SD Card. May have washed it....
 
I found the original raw, is this better? @KenC , @otherprof

View attachment 126126
I do prefer this one. I still think a little off the top would focus my interest more on the center of the flower, but that is where I think the action is.
Just wanted to add that I can only comment on how I like the image - not on how close it comes to the original flower. That would be like people who praise portraits from the 16th century because they "really catch the character of the person." To which I always reply, at least in my mind, "How do you know that?"
 
@jcdeboever - the version in the last post works for me - you recovered the detail and the crop is good. The second one in the last post looks like it may be a little oversaturated as well.
 
I found the original raw, is this better? @KenC , @otherprof

View attachment 126126
I do prefer this one. I still think a little off the top would focus my interest more on the center of the flower, but that is where I think the action is.

How is this? and another pic of it from a different angle and light.

View attachment 126134

2. Different angle and light
View attachment 126133
The last one is my favorite. What a lot of drama!
 
How is this? and another pic of it from a different angle and light.

A question for my own curiosity. Which of the four color variations you presented matches the actual colors of the flower?
 
How is this? and another pic of it from a different angle and light.

A question for my own curiosity. Which of the four color variations you presented matches the actual colors of the flower?
The first one more so. They were very vibrant flowers. I didn't edit the color at all in the first one. Just bumped the clarity, lowered the highlights a tad. On the second one which was taken an hour later had different sun, I did the same and lowered the saturation. White balance was auto on both, probably should have been set to sunlight but still the color was pretty accurate on the point and shoot. So currently, the second one is best representation of color.
 
This shot reminds me of the Rolling Stones logo.

Re the colors - I find the dark pink/magenta/bright red flowers to be the most difficult to work with. However, they are usually the prettiest flowers. I usually end up desaturating or even completely changing the hue in ACR in order to get something that I can work with.
 
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The first one more so

currently, the second one is best representation of color.

Ok you're confusing me, which is it? LOL I've had my struggles with dark saturated colors. Not sure if this is your issue, but I've found that, when I load raw images into 3rd party conversion software shadow areas can come out oversaturated and lacking in detail. Dropping the saturation caused a deviation from the actual color, and didn't help the detail. When I used the camera manufacturer's software to convert the raw files, the shadow areas remained with the fine detail. Making sure I had the latest firmware update on my camera, and the latest software updates to LR and PS helped, as did making sure that raw images were loaded into LR using the proper profiles for my camera. In any case unless I'm using my "artistic freedom" to create an image, I find it's better to stay as close to the actual subject color as possible.
 

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