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Charles Wesley
06-06-2009, 01:08 PM
Found this plant down the street growing next to a drainage ditch. I was able to pull my car off of the road.
Had to aim into a dark area inorder to get a decent BG. As usual had to wait out the island breeze around here.

Canon 5D, EF 100- 400mm f/ 4.5- 5.6 zoom L, EX 550 flash and tripod. My exposure was 1/ 125 sec. @ f/ 5.6 ISO 640.

Enjoy...
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Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

Julie Kenward
06-06-2009, 06:43 PM
Charles, that looks like a canna lily and a very pretty one at that! Since the BG had to be dark to get the image I'd take it all the way to black - it will certainly set off that yellow/orange flower if you decide to do it.

Very nice detail throughout the flower. I'd think about cloning the two small dark pieces just behind and to the right of the main bloom. It's not so much that it's a distraction - it just isn't central to the composition in any way - but that's purely personal choice.

Charles Wesley
06-06-2009, 07:46 PM
Jules,

Thanks for the ID
help. It's definitely a canna lily for sure. I will clone as you suggest and repost tomorrow.
Thanks for your imput...
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Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL

Charles Wesley
06-07-2009, 10:41 AM
Here's a repost with Jules advise. Thanks for your help.
__________________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

Julie Kenward
06-07-2009, 11:11 AM
Charles, here's more along the lines of what I meant:

I selected the entire BG and then opened a levels adjustment. I moved the midtones slider almost all the way to the light tones slider - this creates a super black BG. I recropped your image from a 7x11 to an 8x10 to take a little bit off both the top (empty space) and bottom (taking the notch area out of the stem). Last, just for kicks, I went to filter/render and added an omni spotlight just around the entire petal area of the flower, leaving it brighter against the black BG.

See what you think...

Charles Wesley
06-07-2009, 11:34 AM
Julie,

Love your repost. It looks very good. I now understand what you meant in previous post. My current goal is to improve my photographic techniques vs. post processing. Afraid I'm not good enough right now but will not stop trying.

Don't get me wrong I like PS but am trying to get back to what I was trying to do in the film days.

I have many doubts about my abilities in that regard....
__________________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Auigustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

Julie Kenward
06-07-2009, 11:40 AM
Charles, I truly believe ANYONE can "get there" if they work at it. The more photos you take in different settings and different lighting the more it will become second nature and you'll instinctively know what to do.

I admit, not really spending much time on film cameras, I do rely on pp to either add that sparkling touch to an already correctly exposed/composed image or I use it to fix an image that didn't get the best exposure in the field but I always try to remember how much I had to add in pp to make up the difference. Looking back over images from only a year or two ago I can see that I am constantly getting better. Part of that is my knowledge base is expanding, part is that my pp techniques are better and part of it is that I'm finding my true voice with my photography and can instinctively "know" how I want my final image to look. I use every tool I can to get me there, always striving to rely more and more "in camera" and less on pp. Still...knowing Photoshop or some other pp program is a wonderful tool to have when what you see in the field doesn't exactly match what your vision for that image was.

We're all just artists in progress...

Charles Wesley
06-07-2009, 11:51 AM
Jules,

I truly agree with you about PS being a great tool. Took classes with PS 3.0 years ago. My goal is to try and get a result very similar to what I saw in the field. I make minor adjustments in levels, curves, S/H, contrast to make up for the short comings of digital cameras. They have gotten so much better since my first one in January 2001. They handle color, contrast and sharpness much better now. I feel just that I'm getting in the habit of using CS4 more than I should. It's just my opinion. Believe me I really like PS and would have tremendous problems getting results with a film camera like I get with these amazing DSLR's now.

You are totally right about us all being artists. It does not matter to me how one gets a great image these days...

Nancy A Elwood
06-07-2009, 06:02 PM
Charles and Jules let me say that I like Jules crop and brightness added to flower, but I like the repost that Charles did for the BG. I just like that touch of green in the BG. Lovely subject you picked Charles!

Fabs Forns
06-08-2009, 05:10 PM
Very lovely subject and presentation, drama at its best!