Foggy Morning Rain

[Julie Kenward]

We had lots of fog and rain this weekend here in the Midwest. I found this rose bush Saturday morning while out trying to photograph some landscapes that were hopelessly socked in with fog.

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro
f/4 @ 1/80th, ISO 200
AWB, Center weighted metering
Handheld, Very overcast skies
Processed in Camera Raw & CS3
Levels/curves/saturation adjustments, small crop, edge vignette

[Jason Kinsey]

Julie I love the texture the water droplets give the leaf and the flower....Nicely done!!!

[Ian McHenry]

Beautiful definition and colour balanced composition Jules.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Robert O'Toole]

Nice details and soft light, well done.

I noticed in the tech details that the image was made with AWB. Do you adjust the temp in ACR? The reason I ask is that the image looks a touch cold, you should try to shoot cloudy or manual K settings. It really helps processing later. You can also use live view on the newer bodies to preview the temps.
Interesting that I dont think I have used AWB in over 10 yrs of using Canon DSLRs.

Robert

[Julie Kenward]

Robert, I almost always shoot AWB because I find I am almost never satisfied with the other settings and end up adjusting them as well so why not leave it in AWB and work it out in Camera Raw? To be truthful, I don't remember adjusting the temp in this one. I desaturated the magentas a bit and then tweaked the overall contrast in curves to make the light on the leaf pop and that I darkened the BG with the vignette and some additional burning.

As for the image looking cold - it WAS cold. Temps were in the upper 50's this weekend and with the rain and fog...brrr!!!

[Aristotle Georgiou]

Nice image Jules! beautiful colour, nice light, good detail and love the droplets.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Jules - I really am enjoying this image and keep coming back to it. It looks almost as if it has been dusted with a little frost - now there's a wintery thought for you!! BTW I always keep my WB setting to automatic too - I find the others are rarely satisfactory for bird photography.
Regards,
Nicki

[Bill McCrystyn]

Hi Julie. Pretty Rose, but that big leaf keeps getting my attention. I can't concentrate on the flower (the presumed subject) for more than about a half a second before my eye goes back to the leaf. I'm not sure if it's the position in the frame or how sharp it appears. I would have to agree with Robert on the "feel" of the WB, perhaps you should have made some adjustment. I don't think he was speaking about the ambient air temperature. Getting the color temp on the original image in camera close to correct does help later in PP. Keep up the good work.