Playing with Roses (C&C Always Appreciated)

[JWellman]

#1

#2

 

[lyonsroar]

#1 the lighting is rather flat and it almost looks like you tried to fake shallow DOF in PP? Also I'm seeing some yellow in there (water, etc)
#2 better, but looks very saturated for my liking. Possibly overexposed in the middle of the bunch... (talking out my @ss)

 

[JWellman]

#1 is using a yellow depression glass so yes, it's yellow. And yes, I smudged out the kitchen counter which was showing a 1980's lovely woodgrain. :mrgreen:

#2 I desaturated it... too much or just right?

 

[Dani41780]

i really like them.

 

[lyonsroar]

#1 is using a yellow depression glass so yes, it's yellow. And yes, I smudged out the kitchen counter which was showing a 1980's lovely woodgrain. :mrgreen:

#2 I desaturated it... too much or just right?

considerably better!

 

[MissCream]

I think you need to diffuse your flash on the second one, the light is a bit too harsh and it's causing shadows.

 

[JWellman]

I think you need to diffuse your flash on the second one, the light is a bit too harsh and it's causing shadows.

Thanks for the head's up. Reading my flash manual will hopefully help me to understand, I just haven't got that far yet.

 

[MissCream]

Is it a pop up or external?

 

[JWellman]

Is it a pop up or external?

It's external and it has a catchlight panel but I haven't used it yet! Quite frankly I'm not sure when I'm supposed to. Don't you know it's easier to try it first and THEN read the manual?? :mrgreen:

 

[MissCream]

Very rarely will you have to use your flash pointed directly at your subject without some sort diffusion. I usually have my flash pointed straight up and I have a bounce card behind it (when I'm outside), that way the flash isn't so harsh

 

[JWellman]

Thanks Miss Cream...I've been reading the book (yep, a book...and not my manual :greenpbl by David Ziser called "Captured by the Light." He demonstrates different angles to use the flash. Following his advice I haven't been shooting directly at the subject. I angled the flash for this shot but obviously not near enough. I'll try straight up next time. I'll also see if that bounce card will help!

 

[clanthar]

Your use of flash and lighting contrast in these is fine. They're not overexposed. The red channel is badly clipped. If these are in-camera JPEGs then it's likely the problem was created by the camera image processor. If these are processed RAW files then the problem was created either by the RAW converter or your use of the RAW converter.

Joe

 

[Derrel]

Reds look a bit oversaturated to me. I like #1.

 

[JWellman]

Thanks guys...

I'm not sure Clanthar. I can tell you that the image was not showing any 'hot spots' on the view finder so I agree that it was not over exposured. Perhaps it is something that I adjusted while post processing? I pulled the image back into Lightroom and converted it back to its original form. Below you will see the unedited version.

I did a Google search for knock-out roses and a lot of the images I saw are much like mine. The petals have lighter areas so perhaps they are being construed as over exposed.

Original:

 

[clanthar]

Thanks guys...

I'm not sure Clanthar. I can tell you that the image was not showing any 'hot spots' on the view finder so I agree that it was not over exposured. Perhaps it is something that I adjusted while post processing? I pulled the image back into Lightroom and converted it back to its original form. Below you will see the unedited version.

I did a Google search for knock-out roses and a lot of the images I saw are much like mine. The petals have lighter areas so perhaps they are being construed as over exposed.

Original:

I was rushing when I posted that last note. I took the time to have a close look at the EXIF data for this photo. Seems you did shoot this camera RAW and then processed it through Lightroom. The red channel is definitely clipped and I think you can blame it on Lightroom (ACR).

I'm real familiar with knockout roses. Their color is right on and over the line of the defined limits of the sRGB color space. So your camera captured the color of the roses in the RAW file. Then Lightroom had the job of assigning all of those colors into the sRGB color space. When Lightroom encountered colors outside the sRGB limits it had to coerce those colors into bounds. It did that job poorly and screwed up the red channel in your photo leaving you with posterized, detail-lacking blocks of solid color. Most folks see this and incorrectly assume overexposure. A great way to see countless examples of this would be to do a Google image search on knockout roses -- you tried that. 99+% of everybody photographing those roses will do so with cameras that produce in-camear JPEGs. 100% of those cameras will screw up those photos.

I'm not a heavy Lightroom user (only use it at work) so I'm not certain if Lightroom can be controlled by the user to prevent this. My memory is telling me that Lightroom can't edit independent RGB channels prior to final conversion.

Solution: use a different RAW file converter. Your camera came with one -- DPP. I know that DPP has the ability to step in by hand and prevent this from happening. In the tools palette you would select the RGB tab and then select only the Red channel to edit. You could then pull back the clipping on that channel.

Joe