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Brendan Dozier
04-01-2011, 04:46 PM
Saw these California Poppies glowing super bright in the sun, they almost looked like torches!
Crop, ACR, PP, NR, cleaned up some spots on petals and BG, increased saturation on BG to make a bit greener.

7D, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
1/250
13.0
ISO 400

C & C welcome & appreciated,

- Brendan

Anita Bower
04-02-2011, 10:22 AM
Gorgeous color--the flower glows! Love the two turned-down edges--nice touch. Stands out nicely from the blurred bg.

Steve Maxson
04-03-2011, 10:44 AM
Hi Brendan. These are pretty wild colors! It's hard to make something this red-orange look good without blowing the red-orange-yellow channels - without looking at the histogram, I think you have done a decent job in this regard. Good sharpness in the key areas, the background is nicely blurred, and I like the slight diagonal comp. I also like the way the orange light seems to be reflected onto the mushroom-shaped base. Well done.

Ken Childs
04-03-2011, 03:42 PM
Hey Brendan, this one really glows! Are the poppies blooming already or is this one from last year? I remember some areas of the Tejon Pass with hillsides covered in glowing orange! Then the Lupines bloom and they get covered in purple.

You handled the colors well...some may think the colors are overdone but they probably haven't seen one of these in person. :S3: It looks good as is but I might like to see how it looks with a slight CW rotation.

Brendan Dozier
04-03-2011, 05:10 PM
Thanks Anita, Steve & Ken, I appreciate your feedback very much. Yes, poppies are already in bloom here in San Diego, this was taken just a few days ago down the street. The sun really sets them ablaze, and they can match some of the rich yellow, orange, red colors you might see in a glowing sunset.

I find when you want to capture glow, especially in brighter sunlight, you kind of have to ignore some of the histogram readings. You do lose detail, but that's just part of the glow effect. I did a bit of recovery in ACR, which turned some of the birght yellow-orange areas into more orange, and decided to go with that.

Here's repost with a bit more CW rotation:

Anita Bower
04-03-2011, 06:18 PM
I like the repost with the rotation!