ash leaves

The emerald ash borers wiped out essentially all the ash trees in this region of the country. However, the roots of at least some must've survived, and new shoots are taking hold. I shot these leaves on a gusty day near the end of September. Two shots were used for the image. One was taken between gusts with a relatively short exposure; the other was taken during a fierce gust with a long exposure.

Nikon D3S, zoom at 85 mm, f/5.6; ISO 2500, 1/160 sec and ISO 100, 7.2 sec

processing

• The "still" shot was masked to reveal just the leaves on a layer above the long-exposure shot layer. As you look at the image, the wind blew the leaves down and to the right.
• The image was cropped and flipped horizontally for composition.
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II, reduced opacity
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Watercolor, reduced opacity, Color blend mode
• Flypaper Textures texture -- a very homogeneous red and blue one, colorized (redder) with a clipped Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, masked off the still leaves, Lighten blend mode, reduced opacity
• four B&W layers -- two Fractalius, Alien Skin Snap Art Stylize Line Art, Topaz Simplify edges; all Multiply blend mode, three at reduced opacities
• gradient vignette

Dennis,

Greetings. I like the effect of pairing the short and long exposure images with the outlined detail in the leaves. The few lines in the bg seem a little odd to me. The color palette is very pleasing and I particularly like the green-magenta-violet color contrast. Thanks for posting this image along with the processing details.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Lovely composition and great interplay of colors, especially that somewhat surprise of green. The blend of the 2 images is very well done and I will have to think on exactly what was masked and what was erased, etc. It would be interesting if you created a you-tube video of your processing!

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Originally Posted by Nancy Bell

. . . great interplay of colors, especially that somewhat surprise of green.

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I'd read something the day before I worked on this image about nature getting colors right. These ash leaves are a perfect example of that. Red-violet and yellow-green are complements of each other. My favorite time for shooting Fall color is early in the season when the color change is in transition and there's such a wonderful contrast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nancy Bell

. . . I will have to think on exactly what was masked and what was erased, etc. . . .

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Here are the two photos untouched except for flipping. Everything but the leaves close to the lens were masked out of the left one, and the right one became the background.

I haven't, yet, figured out why the leaves look yellower in the long-exposure shot during the wind gust. It's pretty much true throughout the frame. Maybe the sun was out briefly???

Dennis, combining the exposures is a very neat idea and I love the results. Beautiful colors and I love your choice of filters.:S3: I also like the fact that you left the leaf blemishes alone - I think they add interest to the story. Nicely done:S3:

Dennis, thanks for posting the extra info and images! That really helps me "see".

Very unique idea, Dennis, combining two exposures like that. It looks so natural that I never would have guessed it was a composite. Thanks for sharing your process, and I love the colors!

Love the colours and comp. The bg is beautiful. Very well processed.

WOW! Gorgeous, and extra points for all the processing work!

I wonder if the warmer color in the longer exposure was due to auto WB? It can read the balance differently depending on framing -- but I assume it must do that reading up front, at the time it reads exposure, so I wouldn't think it's really because it was a long exposure. Would be interesting to know more about it!

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

. . . I wonder if the warmer color in the longer exposure was due to auto WB? It can read the balance differently depending on framing -- but I assume it must do that reading up front, at the time it reads exposure, so I wouldn't think it's really because it was a long exposure. Would be interesting to know more about it!

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I wondered about white balance, too. Normally, I don't let the camera do much automatically. Sure enough, when I checked the metadata, the white balance was manual. I've been playing around quite a bit with long exposures, and this is the first time I've noticed the color difference.

It often doesn't appear to make much sense. Were the two initial WB settings (coming into the RAW processor) very different?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

It often doesn't appear to make much sense. Were the two initial WB settings (coming into the RAW processor) very different?

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I'm sure I wouldn't have changed the WB setting between shots. I just went back and checked some images I took in early October. In both cases, I did an HDR series followed by the same scene with a long exposure. Neither of those seemed to show any difference in color between the middle-exposure in the HDR series and the long-exposure one. The long exposures were long, too -- two minutes in one case and six minutes in the other.

I love the colors! I think I like the tight crop. Combining these two images works beautifully, creating a compatible and pleasing background. A good idea for me to try. As always, great processing! I see what Michael means about the lines in the bg. They don't bother me, but i wonder what it would look like if they were removed. If you ever create a utube video of your processing, do let us know!