Gladiola Macro

[Anita Bower]

I've been busy this summer and regret my absence from these forums. Hope I have time to start up again.

A Gladiola from my garden. Taken indoors with Nikon D300, 105mm macro lens, 2.5 sec., f51, ISO 200. I may have used a Cannon Close up filter 500D.
Processed in Elements 10: I processed the RAW file twice, once with details and once with low clarity, and combined them. Crop, clone, paint, sharpen, and CEP Darken/Lighten Center.

I look forward to constructive critique.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice! I love the color and luminous light, and the composition is very pleasing with the lines radiating up from the bottom to cradle the center of interest, which has lovely sharpness. The darker areas and curve near the top bring the eye back into the center.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Now Anita the table has turned - I am struggling to offer constructive comments on your image! Any how here goes:-

Firstly - yes I like it - why? The pattern the composition and the delicate structures and colours. I really like the contrast of the stamens and the light is beautifully soft.

I don't understand why you combined two raw conversions if one was for detail and one was not - I have possibly misunderstood something but my first thought would be wouldn't one be fighting the other... but maybe you have masked certain parts??
CEP - sorry what does this mean?

[Anita Bower]

I don't understand why you combined two raw conversions if one was for detail and one was not - I have possibly misunderstood something but my first thought would be wouldn't one be fighting the other... but maybe you have masked certain parts??
CEP - sorry what does this mean?
Good questions. In this case I didn't mask. Instead, I put the smoother version on top of the more detailed version, and set the opacity to 60% and blending mode to lighter color. I was experimenting to see what results I would get, and I liked what I saw.
CEP is Color Effex Pro by Nik.

[Norm Dulak]

Hi Anita.

I like what you have produced here but don't understand how or why you did it the way you have described. For me, the beautiful soft pink curves accented by the dark contrasting structures are enough to make me say well done!

Norm

[Anita Bower]

Hi Anita.

I like what you have produced here but don't understand how or why you did it the way you have described. For me, the beautiful soft pink curves accented by the dark contrasting structures are enough to make me say well done!

Norm
Thanks, Norm. I don't know if I can justify what i did, but, in an attempt to explain, I'm posting the two files that i combined. One has detail where I want it. The other has smoothness where I want it. Don't know if it explains anything. Maybe I could have gotten the same result in a different way.
:-)

[Mitch Haimov]

Welcome back, Anita. What a coincidence--a few days ago I was thinking about how I miss your consistently excellent work in this forum. I hope you are able to come back on a more consistent basis...

I really like this image a lot! The blending worked out very well; you set the opacity of the soft layer just right and I like the result much better than either of the two versions that went into it. I wish I could see more of the stamen on the right, but that just keeps drawing my eye back to it. I do find the brightest area middle to upper right a little distracting, but you could easily bring it down a touch if you agree. VWD. And I'm a sucker for abstract macro work, so great to see someone else posting it!

[Bill Jobes]

Very nicely done, Anita ! And it doesn't matter to me how you got there.

With the googolplex possible options in post production, the creative adventure can twist and turn with a single click.

We are fortunate to have these tools available. I can't count the times a whim in Photoshop and myriad plug-ins took me to surprising places.

[Nancy Bell]

Simply beautiful, Anita, as all your flower images are! Luscious pink shades and delicate lines for a lovely, soft & glowing image. Thank you for explaining your approach. The layering brought out the best of both.

[Anita Bower]

Welcome back, Anita. What a coincidence--a few days ago I was thinking about how I miss your consistently excellent work in this forum. I hope you are able to come back on a more consistent basis...

I really like this image a lot! The blending worked out very well; you set the opacity of the soft layer just right and I like the result much better than either of the two versions that went into it. I wish I could see more of the stamen on the right, but that just keeps drawing my eye back to it. I do find the brightest area middle to upper right a little distracting, but you could easily bring it down a touch if you agree. VWD. And I'm a sucker for abstract macro work, so great to see someone else posting it!
Thank you for your detailed critique. I was especially glad to have that bright area pointed out.

[Anita Bower]

Thank all of you for your comments.

[Mitch Haimov]

Thank you for your detailed critique. I was especially glad to have that bright area pointed out.

You are quite welcome, Anita.

(In re-reading my prior post I realized that my comment regarding right stamen is ambiguous--what I meant was having it partially hidden works out well for me as I keep going back to look at it.)