Iris

[Richard Lovison]

http://richardlovison.com/photos/iris.jpg
© reserved 2009, Richard Lovison

It has been a while since I have posted an image... a video card in my main computer fried due to a fan failure so I've been limping along with a backup until the replacement arrives. Hope you enjoy.

Olympus E-3
Vivitar Series 1 90-180mm flat field zoom @ 180mm
manual exposure - 1/20 sec @ f16
ISO 100

[Joseph Martines]

Richard:

Nice capture. Iris' seem to flop all over the place for me.

Yours is crisp.

Personally, I prefer a little more saturation.

Thanks for sharing.

[Julie Kenward]

Richard, this is beautiful. I like the composition with the tilt going right to the corner. I really love the light, airy feeling of the colors...I can almost smell the iris! Only thing I'm not sure about is the little bit or yellow in the LRC...but not much you can do about that...maybe try to tone it down a little bit more so it blends in?

[Richard Lovison]

Ah, I see what you mean Jules. I thought I had balanced the three areas of green-yellow though now every time I look at the image my eye is drawn to that bit of yellow in the corner. A reduction in saturation and a brightness adjustment will probably help. Thanks for your input. :)

One of my frustrations with the digital process -- and this is not an excuse -- is this blasted LCD monitor. Unless one pays upwards of $1000, an LCD screen suffers from uneven brightness from the top of the screen to the bottom as well as color shifts. A CRT didn't have this problem. At a particular viewing angle, the horizontal center third of my screen is the only area correctly calibrated with the top third being darker and the bottom third brighter. This creates all sorts of problems when doing a critical analysis of an image, especially a vertical extending the full height of the screen. And this doesn't take into account the overall brightness fluctuations that occur depending on how long the monitor has been turned on and whether you slightly shift your viewing angle.

If anyone is interested in the performance of their particular monitor, this page offers some great tests.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

I keep a copy on my computer and bring the "viewing angle" test up from time to time to make sure the calibrated area is in the center of the screen by adjusting the tilt of the LCD panel.

[John Lowin]

This may be a solution to the yellow issue. Let me know if this is better or worse. - John

[Richard Lovison]

Oh wow, that's wonderful! Do you mind sharing what you did John?

[John Lowin]

Hi Richard, I used Nik Software's, Vivisa. I selected the yellow area with the "add control point tool" then used the eyedropper tool to select a color within your image that I wanted to replace the yellow with, and Vivisa does the rest. This is a great and powerful PS plug-in. - John

[Anita Bower]

What a nice composition and lovely soft colors. I like seeing through the arch! I hadn't noticed the yellow until mentioned by Jules, and I like John'n correction.

[Richard Lovison]

Hi Richard, I used Nik Software's, Vivisa...

John,

Thanks for sharing the technique that you used. It's always helpful learning how others would tackle a problem.

[Julie Kenward]

I want that plug in sooooo bad! I used it like crazy on the free 30-day trial but I have to wait and save some more cash before taking the plunge.

And, yes, I think it's 100% better. Now my eye stays centered and doesn't wander down to the corner of the frame. Nicely done!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Richard,
Saw this one earlier and only got to comment now (son's 8th grade graduation)......I like the angle and perspective. Very nice and a bit unusual. I like the colors as presented too.....fits the softness of this Iris. Nicely done
PS I like the tweak too (nice job John)

[Gordon Craig]

I really like the originality of this picture. I don't think I have seen a flower shot like this.