Which pic do you prefer? Tulips - Red and White

GerryDavid · Jul 14, 2005

I posted this a week or so ago I believe, and some of the feedback suggested that I desaturate the background a bit, and to make the background a bit more out of focus to put the attention on the main subject.

So which do you prefer? A or B?

A

http://gerrydavid.smugmug.com/photos/27628709-L.jpg

B

http://gerrydavid.smugmug.com/photos/28414640-L.jpg

Sorry the borders are not exactly the same, the pics were done a week and some apart and I didnt keep the original psd file for the web version, just the jpg.

JonMikal · Jul 14, 2005

the tulips pop more in the last shot IMO, but the blur runs a bit into the edges of the petals - easy fix though. seems the tulips are still fighting with the background in the first. beautiful shot!

GerryDavid · Jul 14, 2005

To select just the tulips I duplicated the red channel *channel with most contrast*, then played with the curves slightly to make it even more contrasty. Then I went around the edges with the dodge tool set to highlights, and burn tool set to shadows. Then I used the pencil tool to white out the inside, selected that and inverted the selection and filled the rest with black. Then to make the mask, I selected this channel, feathered it 5 pixels *in an 8x10 @ 300dpi file* and applied the mask to the blurred layer, so the sharp layer would show through.

Perhaps 5 pixels was to much?

Rod-UK · Jul 15, 2005

On my screen the subjects in "A" are cleaner and sharper. You seem to have done a lot of work for a negative effect.

Crop away the top 1/4 of the photo and your problem (if it is one) goes away.

sfaribault · Jul 15, 2005

Picture 'A' is a lot sharper...

Steve

Corry · Jul 15, 2005

A pops out at me more, as well. I can definately see where you were going, and why you wanted to desat the bg...and I still think it could help the photo, but needs to be done..cleaner maybe? Not sure. I'm not good enough with photoshop, so maybe I shouldn't be critiquing this time! :lol:

BTW, haven't seen you around much, Gerry...good to see you!

GerryDavid · Jul 15, 2005

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I think I still prefer A. Selections is my weak point in ps, heh, I was hoping this technique would help *got it from a ps dvd*, but with out feathering, it looked wrong, and with feathering, I can see what you all are saying. This was taken back a while ago so theres no chance to go back and reshoot. Also I would hate to crop the top part off. For 1, im enlargeing the pic to print it at 8x10, so more cropping means more enlarging. The result from this size is good, but if I crop to much im sure itll be pixelated. And I like the flowers in the background, just wish I used a larger aperature. I actually did but the compositions are different in those.

Good to see you to core. I dont think anyone over on the other forum has noticed I havent posted there in probably a couple of months or so, hehe. My photography forum surfing has really decreased lately, it all seems to be the same sort of content these days. I still check out tpf and some others every few days. :0) I find the business side of things more interesting lately.

Corry · Jul 16, 2005

GerryDavid said:
Good to see you to core. I dont think anyone over on the other forum has noticed I havent posted there in probably a couple of months or so, hehe. My photography forum surfing has really decreased lately, it all seems to be the same sort of content these days. I still check out tpf and some others every few days. :0) I find the business side of things more interesting lately.

I noticed! But if YOU haven't noticed, I haven't posted over there in a long long time, either, so I didn't say anything.

But we DO have a nice off-topic area here, so you should come hang out!

And you are better at PS than I am.

Mike Jordan · Jul 16, 2005

The first one is sharper. The second one the feathering is too pronounced along the edge, which throws off the rest of the flowers. Also, I agree with Rod... crop the top part of the image and get rid of the big yellow Tulip. It really drags the eyes up and away from what I assume is the main focus of this picture... the two red and white Tulips. The two smaller ones aren't too bad, as they are more out of focus, but the other one is the same size as your red and white ones and it competes with the two front ones.

The red and white Tulips are sure pretty flowers though.

Mike

Karalee · Jul 16, 2005

Selections are usually long and tedious, I have a feeling you could have done well with a new layer and a layers mask thing (technically speaking of course) and used a feathered brush to paint over.

Otherwise, pretty good there Gerry

Geronimo · Jul 16, 2005

I like A better, mainly because of the sharpness of the foreground tulips. Maybe it is worth reshooting instead of manulipating in PS. What lens did you shoot this one with? If you had a better bohek in the orginal it would have made those tulips just pop out and scream for the attention they deserve.

GerryDavid · Jul 16, 2005

Geronimo said:
I like A better, mainly because of the sharpness of the foreground tulips. Maybe it is worth reshooting instead of manulipating in PS. What lens did you shoot this one with? If you had a better bohek in the orginal it would have made those tulips just pop out and scream for the attention they deserve.

I cant reshoot, these tulips are long dead, and the location is like 4 hours away. :0)

The lens is the built in one on my digital, Fujifilm Finepix 3800. A Dslr is on my list of things to get, hopefully this coming Jan or Feb. :0) Its been on my list for a long time though, oh well, hehe.

Karalee said:
Selections are usually long and tedious, I have a feeling you could have done well with a new layer and a layers mask thing (technically speaking of course) and used a feathered brush to paint over.

Otherwise, pretty good there Gerry

Yup, very long and tedious, hehe. Ive done the brush thing in the past and ive never been happy with the results, and with the hour I just wasted *not really an hour, but it seems like it*. The technique I used works well *for those that knows how to do it properly*. Just gotta practice it more I guess.

And I did do it in a new layer. I duplicated the original layer, renamed it blur, and added the blur filter to it. Then I unchecked the visibility, went to the background layer, did the channels masking stuff to get the selection, then activated the channel as a selection, reactivated the blur channel and then added the mask to it, so the bottom layer would show through, the sharp layer.

core_17 said:
I noticed! But if YOU haven't noticed, I haven't posted over there in a long long time, either, so I didn't say anything. But we DO have a nice off-topic area here, so you should come hang out!

And you are better at PS than I am.

Thanks for the compliment. PS is alot of fun and ive spent way to much time in there in the past, hehe. I miss taking PS classes though, hopefully there will be something in the area im moving to, but I doubt it.

Geronimo · Jul 17, 2005

GerryDavid said:
I cant reshoot, these tulips are long dead, and the location is like 4 hours away. :0)

The lens is the built in one on my digital, Fujifilm Finepix 3800. A Dslr is on my list of things to get, hopefully this coming Jan or Feb. :0) Its been on my list for a long time though, oh well, hehe.

I dont know if you are using PS or not, but there is a plug-in call Virtual Photographer (I think), it might have a script to achieve that shot or atleast a guide or see about it.