theme: red tulips

[Nancy Bell]

I'm back from a fabulous 3 weeks in Botswana and South Africa. In Cape Town where my husband & I spent a week with our 2 teenage grand daughters and family, it is the end of summer and going into fall. Glad spring is starting here!

3 tulips photographed inside with afternoon light through the window. I used negative clarity on the background. Pixel bender oil paint on the tulips and tweaking with curves.

[Dennis Bishop]

It's good to have you back. I really like what you've done with this. It has great color and composition, and I like the soft black of the background better than a strong black. Looks like you did something with framing. I like the rounded corners. The triangular arrangement works very well, too.

Negative clarity has been lurking in the back of my mind since Cheryl commented on it. The result is very nice. It looks like you used it on the two tulips behind the foreground one as well as on the black. Did you use the adjustment brush in Camera Raw or did you define the area with a mask in Photoshop?

[Hazel Grant]

Sometimes people go too far with pixel bender. Not here. It enhances the front tulip. I'll have to check out negative clarity.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Just beautiful Nancy, welcome back. I hope you had a great trip.

[Mark Fuge]

Very nice image and application, Nancy. Nice contrast and clarity of the tulips.

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks all! Dennis, I processed this image before I left on my trip and only had skimpy notes. For the neg. clarity I believe I processed 2 copies in Camera Raw and stacked them and masked.

[Anita Bower]

Sumptuous colors and lines. Yummy! The details and position of that front tulip are fantastic. Good job with selective focus. Good idea to use negative clarity for the bg. I'm in love with the front tulip!
Glad to know you had a good trip!

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks so much, Anita!