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View Full Version : You asked for it!



Roman Kurywczak
04-16-2010, 09:17 PM
I always tell people that they need to work an image.......this is from 7 hours of working this flower. I am going to post the black BG (my favorite) along with the high key image(Susan Candelario's favorite)......to show how I tried different approaches with the same flower
Black BG.... indoors....laptop case as BG....natural diffused light, Canon 1D Mark lll with the Sigma 180mm macro and the MT 24 twin lights @ -1&1/3 and f32 for 1/80 sec. at ISO 800 HH.
White BG same camera set-up except outside pointed at sky......3 stops over exposed (on purpose!) at f13 for 1/100 sec. at ISO 800 and flash at +1.
I also have this against a green BG (natural)....but hope you get the workflow process!

Roman Kurywczak
04-16-2010, 09:18 PM
Here's the high key look

Desmond Chan
04-16-2010, 09:53 PM
How about the post-processing, Roman, anything you did to get to the final images?

Roman Kurywczak
04-16-2010, 10:29 PM
Hey Desmond
I'm quite a bit old school....as little as PP'ing as I can do. For the black BG.....I used a selective color layer for the BG......to get it really black......not much after that other than a bit of levels and I used Robert Amoruso's LCE trick to boost contrast. On the white BG......even less......the 3 stops of overexposure ensured the sky was pretty white (it was the blue sky from previous post w/clouds) but the flash bought ou the details in the flower. I don't think I used the contrast boost in the white BG.......as I wanted to keep it a bit more subtle. This was all done in camera!
Hope this helps.

Julie Kenward
04-17-2010, 07:26 AM
LOVE that black version! I'm sure the high key would be really impressive in a large print as well but the drama of the black BG puts this one over the top for me. I thought in the opening image the other day (with the blue BG) that the flower looked very "alien" and the black seems to bring that out even more. I can see this whirling through space, can't you? :D

Out of all three BG's the black seems to set off the pink the most. Outstanding image, and wonderful series, Roman.

OvidiuCavasdan
04-17-2010, 02:41 PM
Both are great images! I prefer the one with black BG, but never imagine that it will look so good on white BG!

Ken Childs
04-17-2010, 05:53 PM
I'm certainly glad they were asked for! :)

Both BG's look great but I prefer the black.

Christopher Miller
04-17-2010, 08:40 PM
I like both the black BG and blue BG about equally. The white BG makes the flower look too dark IMO. Very nice series, Roman. :)

Vida van der Walt
04-19-2010, 06:02 AM
By far the black bg Roman. Lovely image!:)

Anita Bower
04-19-2010, 06:53 AM
Great example of the effect of different BGs. This is such a stunning flower that I would add contrast and a bit of color to the one with the white BG to make the flower pop more, as in this example. I know that is not what you were going for. I like both the black and white BGs, with the blue being my least favorite, but still excellent.

Roman Kurywczak
04-19-2010, 09:31 AM
Thanks all....black was my favorite too!

Hi Anita,
I did try that myself and like it.....but as you said ....this time I tried to keep it a bit softer. Your re-post shows yet another direction you can take when trying these!