White Hibiscus

[kostas nianiopoulos]

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/83/whitehibiscus.jpg

The white guy is mine fresh and just came out in my home the bad thing with those flowers are that they dont last a lot only for 2-3 days .

crop , sharpen with hi pass filter method , gaussian blur on BG 250% , levels , clone tool .

canon 50d f10, 1/250 (with the flash of the camera on ) iso 200 , USM IS 100MM MACRO LM

thanks for watching .

[Jonathan Ashton]

Absolutely beautiful, the flower is gorgeous and the background is ideal. The colours and the detail are outstanding - well done!
Composition is not a strong point of mine so I will leave it to others but I suspect this square format is not quite ideal - but what do I know?

[Julie Kenward]

Kostas, the lighting in the BG is gorgeous. The flower is nicely in focus as well. To me, the flower looks a bit "flat" compared to how beautiful the BG is. Maybe this is a result of using flash as it tends to leave a one dimensional feel at times. I opened a levels adjustment layer and brought up the whites and midtones a bit more to get rid of that slight gray cast and to brighten them up a bit. I also used the yellow/green color of the BG to fill in over the top of the ULC where it gets a bit dark and then on the other 3 corners where it was very strongly green. Then I did a quick tweak with curves to brighten the entire image a bit more. This helped even out the tones of the BG a bit more. I feel it makes for a little stronger image.

As for the comp, I would add a bit more to the bottom to include the entire leaf that is cut off in the frame and take a small slice off the top.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

with all do respect if you don't mind i prefer my own post Julie, just is my taste that's all , but thank any way for the help , and your opinion :)

[Julie Kenward]

That's perfectly fine, Kostas. I just like to show some options now and then. You do what's right for your vision!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Kostas,
I can't add much to the above comments but will give you a recommendation.....if you have it and are using a single flash.....try taking it off the hotshoe with an off camera cord and hold it off a ways more to the right or left and try bouncing it off a card. A diffuser over the single flash will also help greatly to soften the shadows from the flash. Using a reflector to bounce light back in from the right will also help.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

Hey Kostas,
I can't add much to the above comments but will give you a recommendation.....if you have it and are using a single flash.....try taking it off the hotshoe with an off camera cord and hold it off a ways more to the right or left and try bouncing it off a card. A diffuser over the single flash will also help greatly to soften the shadows from the flash. Using a reflector to bounce light back in from the right will also help.

Hi Roman , no i dont have one single flash , i dont have anything about it ,i just use this one is on the camera , but i think to buy the twin of the canon , just need to see whats goin on here with my house , just came out from a verry big problem , that means i have spent all the money i was save to fix the house , I thank u so much for your advice !!!!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Kostas,
Then you should go for the diffuser they sell for the pop up flash.....relatively inexpensive and will still help quite a bit!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

I have a diffuser that Mr. Mike Moats has send me , as i took the third place in the july contest , but this one is an little white umbrella for use in single flash i can't use it on the camera . Any way im gonna buy the twin of canon some time , i read that is good one , just need to save few more money .