Nerium Oleander

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks: Oleander bushes grow like weeds in our garden. They are rather naughty and if you use one of their branches when cooking hotdogs over an open fire you could get sick.

Nerium oleander (pronounced/ˈnɪəriəm ˈoʊliː.ændər/ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English)), is an evergreen shrub or small tree in thedogbane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocynum) family Apocynaceae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocynaceae). It is the only species (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotypic_taxon) currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most commonly known as Oleander but has many other names. The ancient city of Volubilis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volubilis) in Morocco took its name from the old Latin name for the flower. Oleander is one of the most poisonous of commonly grown garden plants, and can be very toxic if ingested in sufficient quantity.

Comments appreciated at all times

Very little crop

Gus

Olympus E-620 IS, 70-300 Zuiko @ 280 mm
AP: f/7.1, 1/2500s, ISO 400, 0.00eV, AWB

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gus Like how you are trying to frame in camera !!! Here might take some off the bottom to move the flower down and blur the bg a bit more Good feel and fine image !!!

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Al: Thanks for your always great suggestions

1. I cropped off some of bottom & a sliver off other sides in CS5
2. Duplicated layer, named it "Al"
3. Selected "Al" layer
4. Clicked Filter>Blur>Lens Blur and blurred whole photo to taste (Blame it on something)
5. In same layer, held down Alt (PC) and clicked layer creating Layer mask
6. Selected Layer mask icon, Selected Black in color picker
7. Selected Brush, about 150 pixels (Can use [] keys to change size as I paint, selected no hardness
8. Painted over flower removing blur and revealing sharpness

Hope I blurred BG enough.

Gus

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Al

Noticed I revealed bud TLS unintentially . . . be more careful next time as Gina was rushing me to go shopping this time :(

Best regards

Gus

[Ricardo Rodriguez]

Hi Gus, your repost based on Al's suggestions looks much better. Also, thanks for the info on this species; I'll make sure to keep it far fron the hot dogs!!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Gus, agree the repost looks better. However, there is a selection line or ghosting around the flower petals.

[Sandra K. Mathews-Benham]

The original is beautiful, thanks for the lesson too. I had no idea. Also, I really like the repost--compositionally (?). I have never seen these before, what a beautiful flower.

DMills, you mention a selection line/ghosting around the petals. How did those appear, and what can one do to avoid them?