Potted Daffodils

Joel_W · Feb 13, 2012

Got up this morning ready to hit the road and hopefully take some winter scenics/nature pictures, but even with the blue skies, old man winter decided to stick around one more day, as temps were in the mid 20's, and a double digit winds with gust near 40 mph. Not exactly my idea of good photo weather. So I once again opted to visit the greenhouses at the Planting Fields. thought I'd work more on my technique with the tubes I just got.

As soon as I got into the greenhouse, it was spring. Warm, with some humidity for the plants that made me feel mighty glad I made the trip.

After a few hours in the Orchid rooms, I walked through the main display area, and the Poinsettias were gone. In there place were the dozens of potted Orchids that I've watched for the last several months. And as a special added treat, there were Daffodils in bloom!! Truly a treat for these old eyes.

Here's 4 pictures of those Daffodils in their splendid Yellow glory.

Thanks for taking the time to view my pictures.

Daffodil1 by jaw101, on Flickr

Daffodil 2 by jaw101, on Flickr

Daffodil3 by jaw101, on Flickr

Daffodil4 by jaw101, on Flickr

blackrose89 · Feb 13, 2012

Much much much better!
Good focus and emphasis on the flowers.

#1 and #4 are my favorites. #1 is a nice flower shot in general, maybe just bump up the exposure and contrast just a bit. and #4 is my favorite, looks almost like they're in love. I see almost an emotional connection between the flowers

#2 and #3 aren't bad, but it looks almost like the flowers are competing for attention.

Joel_W · Feb 13, 2012

Angel, thank you so much for your positive CC. Pic #1 is my personal favorite.

One of the issues I've always had, is that what looks near perfect on my screen isn't near perfect as to what others see on their screens. Looking into buying a color monkey calibration system as the answer. Even though I'm still using a laptop as I need it for business, it's still a step in the right direction.

cgipson1 · Feb 13, 2012

Joel, do you calibrate your monitor? Just curious....

Edit: Oops.. didn't read your last post prior to posting that. Reason I asked.. is that so much of your work appears darker than it should be, and yet it doesn't really look underexposed. I would also highly recommend a monitor also... as even with calibration, your laptop screen probably wont't be adequate.

Here is a quick edit for what looks good on my screen...and yes, I calibrate. just so you can compare. It almost looks a bit too bright here... but it is close. Hope you don't mind!

yours

Joel_W · Feb 13, 2012

cgipson1 said:
Joel, do you calibrate your monitor? Just curious....

Edit: Oops.. didn't read your last post prior to posting that. Reason I asked.. is that so much of your work appears darker than it should be, and yet it doesn't really look underexposed. I would also highly recommend a monitor also... as even with calibration, your laptop screen probably wont't be adequate.

Here is a quick edit for what looks good on my screen...and yes, I calibrate. just so you can compare. It almost looks a bit too bright here... but it is close. Hope you don't mind!

yours

Charlie, Of course I don't mind. I really appreciate the help. I compared your edit to my photo both here and on Flickr. Both are darker then yours, and darker then the original photo on my laptop. The laptop photo is darker then your edit, but brighter then the Flickr/TPF pictures.

I had a Mid Tower PC, but I gave it to my son who managed to blow up his computer over clocking it. And since I needed a laptop for work, I had to go that route. A new mid tower system is on my shopping list. Getting back into photography has been a rather expensive endeavor, to tell the truth, a lot more expensive then I envisioned. If a Color Monkey isn't a viable answer, then I'm better off diverting those funds to a new system.

blackrose89 · Feb 13, 2012

Nice edit Charlie

Joel_W · Feb 13, 2012

Charlie, I went back to the original RAW file, and re-edited it. Here's what I came up with. The re-edited picture still is brighter on my screen then what was uploaded to Flickr, and then to here. Why would that be?

DSC_0098_01 by jaw101, on Flickr

cgipson1 · Feb 13, 2012

Joel_W said:
Charlie, I went back to the original RAW file, and re-edited it. Here's what I came up with. The re-edited picture still is brighter on my screen then what was uploaded to Flickr, and then to here. Why would that be?

DSC_0098_01 by jaw101, on Flickr

what profile are you saving it in before you post? Are you resizing it to something reasonable before uploading to flickr (1024 x XXX)... or letting them compress it?

Joel_W · Feb 14, 2012

Charlie,

If you're referring to the picture profile, it changes picture to picture. I upload the pictures to Flickr at 3008 x 2000 MP, since I'm still shooting with an old Nikon D70S. So any and all compression is done by and through them.

cgipson1 · Feb 14, 2012

Joel_W said:
Charlie,

If you're referring to the picture profile, it changes picture to picture.

Referring to color profile, actually!

Joel_W said:
I upload the pictures to Flickr at 3008 x 2000 MP, since I'm still shooting with an old Nikon D70S. So any and all compression is done by and through them.

Not a good idea.. unless you need them that size. I don't trust anyone else to compress my images... especially Flickr and Facebook, their algorithms suck! Unless you have a pro account the largest image Flickr will display is 1028 x X, so resizing them to that, and saving for WEB will help a lot. That will set the photo to SRGB (typically) which is the proper profile for web use... although I wouldn't print with it, and compress it how YOU set it! Start reducing the number of variables until you figure out what is causing it.

Joel_W · Feb 14, 2012

Charlie, Thanks for all the help. This morning I'm going to upload another 5 pictures from yesterday's outing. I'll resize them to 1024xxx. As for the picture profile, if it's a good old Mother Nature shot, I really like to start off with Landscape, as it just pops the greens, then I adjust from there.

If the oil deliveryman doesn't "kill me" again this month (last delivery was $750), I'll have enough in my photo fund to purchase Adobe Elements 10, which is a major step up from Nikon View NX 2. Of course moving from laptop to a Mid tower setup will be the ultimate move, but the head of Household expenses has a very long list of upgrades she wants done, starting with new carpet and furniture for the den.

cgipson1 · Feb 14, 2012

Hey Joel...

Still not what I mean on the color.. I guess I should call them "Color Spaces"

Adobe RGB vs SRGB etc...! Color Management: Understanding Color Spaces

from Digital Photography Tutorials Excellent page, btw!

Don't know what you mean by "Landscape" ... is that a preset in NX2 or something?

Hahaha... I understand! I am glad my girlfriend has NO say in what I spend! It isn't easy sometimes!

Joel_W · Feb 14, 2012

Charlie, yes it's a preset that I choose to use, as a starting point in NK 2. When I was playing around with Elements you could do so much more, but my 30 day trial ended, and purchasing Elements 10, while on the list took a back seat to getting a set of Kenko tubes. Like I said, all things being equal (which never seem to work out that way), I'll be able to purchase Elements 10 in a few weeks, then the fun will really start.

Thanks for those links. I'll be spending quite a bit of time there, reading, taking some notes, and hopefully learning a thing or two. We older folks can still learn, it's just seems to take a lot longer then it use to.

BTW. I posted the 2nd set of pictures as a separate post. Uploaded to flickr after resizing. They do look a lot better to me. What do you think?