Autumn Crocus

[Ron Conlon]

A closer look at an autumn crocus
stack of about 150 images
D800E 200mm f6.3 1/250 iso 100 remote diffused flash

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous -- I love how this becomes almost an abstract, in spite of being hyper-real. (Is that possible??)

I'm wondering about trying to boost detail a little in the oranges. (Probably not contrast, but more like structure.)

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Diane.
I don't have Nik Detail Extractor, so I looked up how to accomplish the effect on the interwebs, and the suggestion was to lower contrast then apply USM: I generated a duplicate of the image on a layer, then used a luminosity curves layer to lower constrast over the part of the histogram where the oranges were, collapsed those layers, then USM with a radius of 6. Fresh luminosity curves layer and lowered contrast over the same part of the histogram again, and then did USM radius 2. Then used a mask to put only the orange parts back into the original. I brightened the oranges a bit in the process. I think it is much improved.

[Diane Miller]

A subtle change, but very nice! I took a simpler approach, using Nik's Viveza, just the Structure slider, then masked it back using a selection for tonal range, clicking the dropper on the yellows and oranges.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the elegant image design, the soft colors, and the repost. Well done. a