Fire Sale Mum

[Gordon Craig]

I bought a mum that was for sale at $1.99 in a grocery store. I had a feeling I could get some nice pictures because it looked very healthy. This is one of my favorite shots of the flower. I shot this with a Canon 5D, 180 mm Canon Lens at 800 ISO, 1/8 shutter, and F32 Aperture.

[Julie Kenward]

Gordon, I really like the way you've managed to capture different layers of light throughout the mum. You do have quite a bit of noise going on in the darker areas - that tends to happen with a slow shutter speed and a high ISO. If you have access to a noise reduction program I'd run it through and see what you come up with.

Might I also suggest that since you cropped the bottom petals that it might look nice to crop the top ones a bit as well...

[Robert O'Toole]

The dramatic BG and the soft light are nice.

There are a few processing problems.

The first thing I notice is some artifacts in the black areas along the edges and near the bottom.

Also there is quite a bit of noise, always try to expose to the right to limit the effects of noise. NR would help here.

Lastly you have some sensor dust.

Robert

[Chris Starbuck]

The dramatic BG and the soft light are nice.

There are a few processing problems.

The first thing I notice is some artifacts in the black areas along the edges and near the bottom.

Also there is quite a bit of noise, always try to expose to the right to limit the effects of noise. NR would help here.

Lastly you have some sensor dust.

Robert

Robert,
A question for you...
A number of times I've noticed you commenting on noise or artifacts in an image that I can't see at all, and I'm wondering why. In this particular case I can clearly see the noise in the flower, and what I think are the dust spots (at least a couple), but the BG just looks solid black to me. I saved a copy of the image, opened it in CS2, and the only way I can get anything to show up in the BG is to pull the Levels middle slider left to around 3 (which is really extreme). My monitor is a Dell 3007WFP 30" LCD, calibrated just yesterday (standard PC 6500K & gamma 2.2). Any ideas?

[Chris Starbuck]

Gordon,
I'll echo Jules' comments. I would crop down just far enough to eliminate any black BG at the upper right corner.

[Robert O'Toole]

Robert,
A question for you...
A number of times I've noticed you commenting on noise or artifacts in an image that I can't see at all, and I'm wondering why. In this particular case I can clearly see the noise in the flower, and what I think are the dust spots (at least a couple), but the BG just looks solid black to me. I saved a copy of the image, opened it in CS2, and the only way I can get anything to show up in the BG is to pull the Levels middle slider left to around 3 (which is really extreme). My monitor is a Dell 3007WFP 30" LCD, calibrated just yesterday (standard PC 6500K & gamma 2.2). Any ideas?


Great question Chris.

You don't mention your browser, I am using Firefox 3 with color profile support enabled and its obvious to my eye at normally viewing size.

After you asked I checked IE and it was not as noticeable. Here is a 300 % blow up to make it easier to see, with PS above and IE below.

I usually do notice more obvious and not so obvious processing problems than most people here. This may be from working professionally with post processing for almost 10 yrs.


Robert

[Robert O'Toole]

My example post actually looks worse than reality since its blown up so much and the capture program I used adds sharpening and some contrast and sat. So its not that accurate but at least its easy to see now.

Robert

[Chris Starbuck]

Robert,
Thanks for the response. I can certainly see the artifacts at 300%, and once pointed out, I can see them (just barely) in the original post. I suspect difference in eyesight, as well as experience, is a factor in my missing such things.:o

I'm also using Firefox 3 (3.0.3) and I can't find where to enable color profile support.

[Robert O'Toole]

Robert,
Thanks for the response. I can certainly see the artifacts at 300%, and once pointed out, I can see them (just barely) in the original post. I suspect difference in eyesight, as well as experience, is a factor in my missing such things.:o

I'm also using Firefox 3 (3.0.3) and I can't find where to enable color profile support.

In the address bar type:

about:config

Then scroll down to:

gfx.color_management.enabled
gfx.color_management.display_profile

And double click on the value column to change.

Let me know if this doesnt work out. Also it seems like its slows down FF a little but its worth it.

With this on images in FF3 should look exactly like they do in PS.

Robert

[Chris Starbuck]

Thanks, Robert.
It's kind of hard to tell what difference that made without a direct before/after comparison, but the colors do seem to match between FF & PS.