Prunella vulgaris

[Jerry van Dijk]

So here it is: my first Photoshop edit! It took me a while to master and all PP comments are still very welcome (hence the detailed PP specs)!:)
This is a common grassland plant in The Netherlands, Prunella vulgaris (Common selfheal). I was actually photographing dragonflies along a small stream, but they were too active and wouldn't land for a pose because of the high temperatures. When the sun was blocked by a large cloud, the wonderful light on this plant caught my eye. Unfortunately I had to shoot full open because there was very little light. As a result, I don't have the DOF I was hoping for, especially on the center flower.

Panasonic DMC-FZ18 @ 18mm (108 mm equivalent) with Suntec 4+ closeup lens, handheld.
ISO-100, F3.6, 1/80 sec. pattern metering, EC -0.3
PP in ACR 5.0. adjustments on WB, exposure, recovery. Added clarity, vibrance and saturation. Sharpening amount 58, radius 1.0, detail 48 and masking 52. ACR NR. Full chromatic aberration correction. Used the adjustment brush to add extra sharpness to the OOF central flower. Cropped slightly for composition.

[Julie Kenward]

Such a pretty specimen, Jerry. It is a shame you didn't catch that front flower more in focus...it looks like the top of the plant is leaning a bit towards you making the focal plane harder to capture. I love the BG and it looks like you did a bang up job on the pp work. ;)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Jerry,
The very shallow DOF got you on the center bloom. You did very well given the specs and HH'ing!!! I rely on my flash to save me in these situations.
As for the post processing it does look good but you may want to see what a shadow recovery would do with the darker parts of the bloom. I am not familiar with ACR but use layers adjustments in PS regualrily in these type of situations.....as I only want to lighten a certain area (dark areas of the flower....not BG) If ACR has this type of thing.....really worth learning and using....even in a basic form.
Not bad for first time in PP'ing!

[Anita Bower]

A lovely flower rising up out of the mist--or so it seems. I agree with Jules re. that one front blossom. Lovely BG and nice pp work. What do you mean that this is your first photoshop edit? What about all your other photos?

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for all your comments.
Roman, ACR has a shadow adjustment slider, which I tried out, but I felt the light looked a bit unnatural after making the adjustment.
Anita, the 'mist' was created using some OOF leaves in the FG. And regarding my first Photoshop edit: so far I've always used the free RAW editor that came with my camera (Silkypix) in combination with Corel Photopaint, but I recently switched to CS4. ACR is a completely new world, but many of the buttons in Photoshop are in the same place as in Corel, only there are a lot more...:eek:! Still busy trying to master all the tweaks.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jerry,
Thats why I think you should look into layers adjustments. S/H will be global.....working on smaller parts with layers.....helps tweak smaller areas and usually give better results. Good luck but think slow......one tool or trick at a time. Many different ways to get to the same place so no 1 way is totally correct!
PS I reposted an example....all I did was select the darker areas using the lasso tool and then did a slight levels layer and brightness/contrast layer. Just opened it up slightly there and nowhere else.
What do you think?

[Anita Bower]

Anita, the 'mist' was created using some OOF leaves in the FG. And regarding my first Photoshop edit: so far I've always used the free RAW editor that came with my camera (Silkypix) in combination with Corel Photopaint, but I recently switched to CS4. ACR is a completely new world, but many of the buttons in Photoshop are in the same place as in Corel, only there are a lot more...:eek:! Still busy trying to master all the tweaks.

Thanks for the explanation. You will be busy.:)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hey Roman, your repost is very impressive. A compeletely different result indeed! Very nice and exactly what was needed. More details and colors showing in those dark areas. Thanks for taking the time to show me what's possible.
I've finished the ACR chapter of the book I bought to learn the basics. Layers chapter is next! Since that is only the third chapter in the book, I think Anita is right. I will be busy. Very busy.....:D!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely selfheal - a very common flower in UK, I suspect you would have been OK with metering at 0 instead of -0.3, I appreciate you did not want to blow any highlights but if you did it would have been marginally and you could have used Recovery. I am guilty of this myself but a little fill in flash would have helped as would a smaller aperture I am not sure which one one your camera but on an SLR with 1.6 crop I would suggest f8.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for the advice Jonathan. The -0.3 EC was a 'leftover' from the dragonfly I was actuall trying to shoot. My flash isn't much good, I only got a pop up on my camera and no hotshoe for anything better.