Suspended

[Julie Kenward]

I've been playing with DOF the past couple of days, trying to vary things up a bit. I've seen a ton of leaves stuck between layers of dead plant material and have been trying to find the balance between getting the leaf and the FG and BG plants all at the same time.

This one was one of my favorites from today's images. How am I doing? All comments welcome!

Canon 40D, EF 70-200mm f4L
f4 @ 1/320th, ISO 250
Manual mode, pattern metering
handheld, natural light
Processed in ACR & CS4. Small crop. Levels, curves, vibrance adjustments

[Chris Starbuck]

Jules,
I like your idea here. The leaf is interesting, as is its position hanging in the brush. But despite the shallow DOF I think the leaf is still a bit overwhelmed by the surrounding clutter. It needs something to more strongly draw the viewer's attention. Really my first thought when I saw this was "This needs a Lensbaby". (Maybe because mine just arrived today:D; haven't even mounted it on the camera yet.) I tried the following, with the idea of simulating a Lensbaby in Photoshop: duplicated the BG layer, applied a small gaussian blur, then applied a layer mask with a small radial gradient (black at center) centered over the sharpest area of the leaf, then dialed down the opacity of the blurred layer. Gave it a contrast boost with curves. Then after looking at it for a few minutes decide to do a tight crop as well. Hope I haven't diverged too far from what you were trying for; if so, ignore.:)

[Julie Kenward]

Chris that is certainly another viable option but my point with this image was to be able to clearly make out the leaf, the FG and the BG all at the same time. I do like the color balance and the vibrance in your version better - I'll definitely go back and make some adjustments!

[denise ippolito]

Julie, As Chris' re-post gives it a little punch I happen to like the soft suddle colors of the orig. but I do think the leaf does need a slight punch- but I would think slight.