Rose c&c

echoyjeff222 · Aug 11, 2015

@WesternGuy
Getting better at visualizing before I shoot now. It saves a lot of time! I saw this tiny rose growing out of some bushes a couple days ago, and I began thinking how I wanted to shoot it ... I have a habit of sitting around and doing too many shots of the same comp/subject. This was actually the first photo that I took with the camera once I set everything up, so I'm proud of myself for not wasting too much time, thanks to pre-visualization

Anyways, I did a few edits to try to mimic what I was seeing in my mind before the shot. I was actually inspired by a portrait that I saw here by Dan Ostergren awhile back (can't find it anymore on here?)... with the model sort of melted in the leaves in the background.

hoping for some thoughts on the different edits and potential crops? I'm going out of my comfort zone with post-processing at the moment. I like this crop, even with all the negative space. For me, it conveyed the isolation and singular beauty of the rose contrasted with the dark background.

original:

IMG_4807-2-Edit by Jeffrey Lee, on Flickr

b&w

IMG_4807-Edit-2 by Jeffrey Lee, on Flickr

red tint flower with blue tint background:

IMG_4807-Edit by Jeffrey Lee, on Flickr

waday · Aug 11, 2015

Nice, I like the original and B&W very much

dennybeall · Aug 11, 2015

Like the original, it's pretty
Prefer more texture in a B&W shot.
The false color is not to my liking.
All are well done.

BrickHouse · Aug 11, 2015

I think I actually like the original the best. Maybe just pulling back the saturation on the reds/oranges a touch might give a nice soft feel.

WesternGuy · Aug 12, 2015

Jeff, these are all very nice images. IMHO, a lot depends on your audience - some folks will like one or the other, or the other, and some will like more than one of them. If I really had to choose, then I would pick the coloured one, although the soft B&W is also very nice. My only nit with it is the two green leaves at the 2-3 o'clock position. They are a bit of a distraction and personally, I would clone them out of there with something like Content Aware Fill. I think the tinted one is spoiled a bit by the fact that here is a bit of the stem "tinted" and it looks like a bit of disembodied rose :biggrin-93:

. I think that if you fixed this up, then it would not be such a distraction/

You are very right when you talk about pre-visualization. IMHO, if you are at the point where you are previsualizing shots, then, IMHO, you have made a significant step up the ladder in your photography.

I am not sure I like the negative space, but that is one of those personal things that can often be the reflection of a photographer's style. My only suggestion would be to place the flower in the upper third of the image so that there is more stem below the flower. Maybe you don't have enough "stem and leaves" in your image to do this - don't know - this is one of those things that you don't know if it will make the image better, or not, until you try it. The other thing to think about is to try a landscape format and place the flower at on of the thirds position with the other thirds position being occupied by negative space. Again, this is something I would try - might not ever make it to a posting, but it would be nice to know what effect that sort of composition would have on the final image.

WesternGuy

echoyjeff222 · Aug 12, 2015

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Here's an edit with the saturation dialed down a little bit and reduced the highlight on the "distracting" leaves in the background. I didn't want to clone it out because I like the texture - if those weren't there, I think it'd be more difficult to tell there were leaves in the background. The other green things are just blotches compared to those two leaves.

I'm actually not 100% sure if what you're seeing is the stem. I don't recall ever seeing a stem when I took the pic - probably hidden behind the flower? ... I think what you see may have just been a stray branch?

[url=https://flic.kr/p/xgMz3v]

IMG_4807-2-Edit by Jeffrey Lee, on Flickr[/URL]

BrickHouse · Aug 12, 2015

That's beautiful!! Well-done.

WesternGuy · Aug 13, 2015

Jeff, very nice. I think you are right - I had another look at it and it and it seems to be a leaf rather than a stem. Regardless, I think that if it wasn't tinted in the "tinted" image, the image would look a lot better (IMHO).

WesternGuy