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Hi all
this is an image of new growth of one of my favorite trees, a tree fern growing in my garden in the shade. I had to wait for the sun to be high in the sky to get some light to it, there was slight wind. Focal length 258mm, f/6.5 at 1/200, ISO 400. In Photoshop I applied a color lookup crisp winter filter, opacity 80% to cool the yellow tone and in camera raw I played with the color mixer illumince yellow and green to get this balance between a more yellow background and white on the main subject. Then I applied a gaussian blur to the whole image, added a layer mask and with a soft round brush and different opacities brought back the wheel and some of the background. I would love your opinions and suggestions.
Kindest regards
Helga
Hi Helga...
I think you did a great job with the greens, as well as the manipulated blur. I'm not sure about the crop and am left wondering if this would be best suited to be in the middle of the frame ?
My only suggestion would be is to decrease the saturation of the green above the subject, to the left....it's much darker than the rest of the greens and it's drawing my eye to it.
It's a very interesting close up!!
Regards,
Darlene
Hi Helga...
I think you did a great job with the greens, as well as the manipulated blur. I'm not sure about the crop and am left wondering if this would be best suited to be in the middle of the frame ?
My only suggestion would be is to decrease the saturation of the green above the subject, to the left....it's much darker than the rest of the greens and it's drawing my eye to it.
It's a very interesting close up!!
Regards,
Darlene
Hi Darlene,
I thank you for your response, it is greatly appreciated. I like your ideas and will certainly have a go and hopefully will do them justice.
Kindest regards
Helga
Dear Helga,
Welcome to critique and thanks for posting. I noticed you favoured a few abstracts in my portfolio, I guess we are bothe a "shapes-type" of photographer. I would love to see a time lapse vesion of your little fern here, unfolding in 4-7 stages... Maybe next time.
You probably had the unfolding in mind and therefore left the many space on the left. I'm not sure you kept the tones to a limited range because the plant is so delicate. Of course the many negative space and minimalistic subject will lead to your fern. But I could not resist to play around with a few aspects and try to make it more "pop".
By luminance masks I worked on the darker tones, increased the contrast. I also dodged the highlights to emphasize the round and inner shape. I added a very blurred texture in soft light layer mode to bring some curvy life to your background, just subtly, hardly visible. I read you unified the colors, but I did the oposite again for a warmer, more pleasant mood. Selecting the highlights by TK8, I brought back some yellow tone to the lights. We are looking at a young life, and though ferns often grow in the shaded areas beneeth trees, sun will not harm and bring life forward a bit quicker. I cropped for a "real" 4:3 format, which is better if somebody wants to buy it as print, and I found the many negative space a bit too much. The center of your curled fern is now on the 33% mark, a standard for harmonic pictures.
Here's waht I did to your work, maybe you do like some of the changes.
Best regards,
Mike - SC
Dear Helga,
Welcome to critique and thanks for posting. I noticed you favoured a few abstracts in my portfolio, I guess we are bothe a "shapes-type" of photographer. I would love to see a time lapse vesion of your little fern here, unfolding in 4-7 stages... Maybe next time.
You probably had the unfolding in mind and therefore left the many space on the left. I'm not sure you kept the tones to a limited range because the plant is so delicate. Of course the many negative space and minimalistic subject will lead to your fern. But I could not resist to play around with a few aspects and try to make it more "pop".
By luminance masks I worked on the darker tones, increased the contrast. I also dodged the highlights to emphasize the round and inner shape. I added a very blurred texture in soft light layer mode to bring some curvy life to your background, just subtly, hardly visible. I read you unified the colors, but I did the oposite again for a warmer, more pleasant mood. Selecting the highlights by TK8, I brought back some yellow tone to the lights. We are looking at a young life, and though ferns often grow in the shaded areas beneeth trees, sun will not harm and bring life forward a bit quicker. I cropped for a "real" 4:3 format, which is better if somebody wants to buy it as print, and I found the many negative space a bit too much. The center of your curled fern is now on the 33% mark, a standard for harmonic pictures.
Here's waht I did to your work, maybe you do like some of the changes.
Best regards,
Mike - SC
Hi Mike
I am sorry to only find you forum post now after all this time, I am still navigating my way around this site and I am learning a lot. I do like the changes you made, it is very much like the original raw image that I took and all you said is true in terms of keeping the tones limited for a delicate look and the added negative space, just because I tend to normally crop too much.
Thank you for this different perspective and I hope to hear from you again.
Kindest regards
Helga
Hi Johannes
I am glad for your inspiration, I am sorry to only find your critique now. I like the idea of the 1:1 format, I think the squareness works well with the roundness of the subject.
I look forward to hear from you again.
Kindest regards
Helga
