festive hydrangea

I must be stuck in a leaf phase. This hydrangea had only one flower cluster this year, but it did put on a display when it was backlit by the morning sun. I don't know why -- the holiday season, perhaps -- I added the fireworks after spending a long time getting the image just the way I wanted it.

fireworks (several years ago) -- Nikon D2X, zoom lens at 200 mm, f/8, 8.2 seconds, ISO 100
hydrangea -- Nikon D3S, 105 mm macro lens, f/3, 4-exposure HDR at 1 EV intervals, ISO 200

processing

• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- Watercolor, Color blend mode
• four B&W layers -- two Fractalius; Alien Skin Snap Art, Stylize Line Art; Topaz Simplify edges; all Multiply Blend mode with reduced opacities
• Flypaper Textures -- texture at Multiply blend mode, partially masked from hydrangea
• two Kim Klassen textures -- one Pin Light blend mode; one Multiply blend mode, partially masked from hydrangea; both at reduced opacities
• two Photo Filter adjustment layers -- Cyan masked from hydrangea, Warming 81 masked from everywhere else
• masked border
• fireworks -- two layers at reduced opacities, one at Linear Dodge blend mode, other at Color Dodge blend mode
• gradient vignette

Hi, Dennis, I like the backlighting and the shadows it created. The fireworks are cool and quite unexpected but they work well with the image - almost like the hydrangea was erupting:S3: I like the subtle framing also.

I like the lighting on the hydrangea and the fireworks do make it look festive. Clever idea!

Hi Dennis, love the framing and the fireworks really work quite nicely for this comp!

Love the composition and lighting, Dennis. The fireworks add a nice pizazz to the image. I see you used textures, so this would qualify as a theme image.

Dennis,

Greetings. I particularly like the shadow to light transition in the leaves... the shadow of the leaf on the left center almost looks like a separate leaf itself. Not wild about the central oof leaf (I wouldn't be opposed to cutting and pasting a transform of one of the other leaves in shadow over that one). Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Gerald-Yamasaki

. . . Not wild about the central oof leaf (I wouldn't be opposed to cutting and pasting a transform of one of the other leaves in shadow over that one). . . .

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I agree whole-heartedly. If I were doing this over again (next year, sometime, after it's recovered from winter???), I'd definitely use a smaller aperture. The leaf in the lower left was way out of focus, but it was much easier to fix because of its orientation. I used a very edited version of the leaf in the lower right that's in both sun and shadow to cover it.

Beautiful leaves. I like the details and the two tones of green. I'm not overly fond of the fireworks. A striking image.

I love the greens and the backlighting. I think the lines radiating is sort of cool, like it will continue to grow. Very subtle pretty frame too.

I like the back lighting with the varying shades of green. The textured bg nicely accentuates the leaves. The out of focus leaf is a bit distracting. I'm with Anita relative to the fireworks.