Agapanthus

[Paul Marcellini]

An image I reworked a week or so ago. I discovered in ACR, the latest update puts 0 on clarity in the middle, allowing now for negative clarity. Sorry if you all had already discovered this, but I have found for aiding in creamy bokeh, that this is great. I had previously done this image with a blur layer overlay but I think it turns out better with negative clarity.

Thanks for looking,
Paul

20d, tammy 28-75@62mm f2.8 1/200s iso400 ext tubes kenko 1.4x

[Julie Kenward]

Paul, this is really lovely. Could you explain this a bit more...the part about "0 clarity". I think I know what you're talking about but I'm sure some others are totally lost and we could all benefit from it!

[Paul Marcellini]

Sorry, in Adobe Camera Raw, and I believe in the latest Lightroom, the clarity slider is defaulted at 0, which used to be to the far left of the slider, but now it is in the middle, allowing for negative clarity. It does different things for different images, but usually works well for images like this where what is sharp is pretty contrasty, as it seems to leave those areas alone.

[Julie Kenward]

I'm going to have to remember to look for that! Thanks Paul!

[Ed Vatza]

Very nice, Paul. The pastel colors are excellent and I love the way the stamens pop. Composition is excellent!

[Robert O'Toole]

Excellent Paul. I really like this one a lot. Good work. Tones, colors, comp, shallow DOF effect all great.

Clarity in ACR and LR, is very similar to a local contrast USM, like 25-60-5 or something in PS. This used to be called a "haze" USM setting.

Robert

[Mike Moats]

Very good looking image. nice pastel colors. Good DOF