Super Parrot Tulip

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 5d Mark II
Canon 100mm macro
ISO 100
1/2 sec
f/32
Gitzo tripod; no flash

Took this a few months ago in a greenhouse. This flower is called a "Super Parrot Tulip." Reminds me of a flamenco dancer!
I used Helicon Focus to combine pics with different focal points. Did some levels and curves in CS4. Any other ways to improve? Thank you for comments and critiques.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Melissa,

What a beautiful flower. The light is absolutely superb! The flows, turns and twist of the pedals is so interesting. A flamenco dancer indeed.

Couple of things help this image to the next level. The stigma is slightly soft on my screen and you want that feature sharp. Try some sharpening work on that.
Composition wise, the center of the flower is almost dead center in the frame, which is something I try to avoid. The black spaces favor the top of the image without black spaces below to balance it all out. I would have to experiment with this, but my first reaction is posted.
I cropped both sides to eliminate some of the black corners and the greyish leaf in the LRC. Then I filled the remaining black spaces with a neutral color sample within the image and the eye dropper and color fill. Also discovered some overexposed highlights and toned them down. The crop moved the center to the right a bit but still preserves the radial flow of the image. There are probably other ways to go at this, and the other folks may have even better ideas for a comp. But, here you have my first take. (still need to sharpen the stigma). let me know what you think.

[kostas nianiopoulos]

Verry beautiful flower and verry beautiful image some spot whites looks a bit over , u could bring back some with colours rage method , well done !!

[Nick Palmieri]

I really like the re-post, very nice subject and nice exposure. Hopefully if you took several images with different focus points you will have one with a sharper stigma and just replace the soft one. TFS.

[Melissa Groo]

Jay, I think you have done a beautiful job. You pointed out things that could be on improved on that hadn't occurred to me at all. I am excited about this. I will try to sharpen the stigma and also apply the changes you have made here. You really have brought it to the next level. Thank you so much!
One question, as I am not very skilled with PS (to say the least)--when you way you toned down the overexposed highlights, how exactly did you do that?

[Jay Sheinfield]

Melissa, I'm a Nikon guy with very limited PS skills. I actually did this exposure adjustment in Lightroom (my favorite software for exposure adjustment) using the pen feature with exposure set to -.2. In PS, I use the Pen feature with Darken selected in mode box and about a 5% opacity/flow. Or sometimes use the pen set at Overlay in mode box, 5% opacity and make sure your set foreground color box is set to black ("D" will reset your foreground color to black). Then just paint over the area. I'm sure there are easier and better ways..........maybe someone else can advise........................There is also a shadow/highlight feature in PS that someone can advise you ..............
Nice to hear you are excited, photography should be fun :D.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Jay, that's helpful. I use LR too, and think I can handle that exposure adjustment!!! I guess I just always think PS must be more powerful/professional, but I should get out of that mindset.

[Ken Childs]

Melissa, this is a great subject that has lots of possibilities! Jay made some great points and his repost is definitely a step in the right direction. You have quite a few cropping options available, depending on what you're trying to achieve. I would go in tighter than Jay did and move the flower center closer to the LR ROT position but that's just me. :) I don't know what this flower really looked like but if this were mine, I'd try using a selective color adjustment layer to add some black into the yellows.

If you're shooting raw, you should think of LR as a stepping stone on the way to Photoshop. I use LR and think of it as something to get me to be best possible starting point for editing in Photoshop.

I forgot to mention that I have some Super Parrot Tulip Bulbs on order. After seeing your shot, I'm even more excited!

[Steve Maxson]

This is a spectacular flower, Melissa (and I really need to learn how to do focus stacking)! The lighting and DOF (except for the already mentioned stigma) are excellent. I like what Jay has done in the repost and both Jay and Ken have some very good suggestions for you to consider. Well done.

[Melissa Groo]

thanks a lot for your tips, Ken. I'll give your crop suggestion a try andwill also try to add some black into the yellows.
I'm pysched for you that you'll be growing these flowers, you're stunning. I look forward to your shots of them someday!