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Hilary Hann
04-24-2010, 04:29 AM
This is my first experiment with Topaz filters. I was crossing a small creek in the Masai Mara when I saw this lily and asked my driver to stop. It wasn't until I opened the file later that I noticed the beetle drinking in the petals. I have been trying to produce something worth posting from this image for some time but I had blasted the whites a little too much. Thought it would make a good trial image for Topaz. Any C&C very welcome. Thanks

7D; 300mm IS; f13; 1/250; ISO 800

I've just checked the preview of the image and noticed that the stem and water movement hasn't reproduced very well so will leave this post and see if I can improve that later. :o

Julie Kenward
04-24-2010, 07:17 AM
Don't you just love these flowers, Hillary? The beetle was a very nice surprise! Unfortunately, both ends of your histogram are blown so recovering the details is pretty much out of the question (probably happened in Topaz.)

Two suggestions: If you keep this image dark as it is presented here, then I'd go with a pano crop (I tried a 10" wide x 5" high and it looked pretty nice.) I'd also try to tone down the blue tint that you have in the shadows just a bit - a yellow adjustment would probably help that out.

Looking forward to more of your images!

Hilary Hann
04-24-2010, 05:40 PM
Thanks Julie, I'll try a different crop and repost.

Roman Kurywczak
04-25-2010, 07:24 PM
Hi Hilary,
You may want to try and selectively lighten the center yellows....just in the shadow areas and the same for the stem area.....otherwise the pano crop is the way to go.

Hilary Hann
04-25-2010, 07:30 PM
Terrific, I'm hoping to work on it this afternoon … after my tax has been finished before tomorrow's deadline! :eek::(

Hilary Hann
04-26-2010, 06:28 AM
I have cropped which does get rid of all that blank space and have taken out some of the blue tint. Have I gone too far or not far enough? I also used the dodge tool to bring back some of the highlight on the edge of the stem.

Anita Bower
04-27-2010, 04:39 AM
I think the repost works really well. It is fun to discover little surprises when opening an image on the computer.

Hilary Hann
04-27-2010, 05:43 AM
Thank you Anita