Say Goodnight ,Gracie

It rained here today - HARD. When I first got home from work it was so humid I couldn't take a single image without my camera lens totally fogging over from the heat and humidity. Finally, right before sunset, my pug, Gracie, and I snuck outside and I grabbed a couple of images of my deck plants before the small amount of sun was lost.

In Photoshop I did a curves adjustment to further accentuate the high contrast of the image. I barely increased the saturation and did a small amount of burning and dodging - just enough to add a little bit of light back into key areas. Then I threw on a soft light layer just to further the brittle light and graininess of the overall image.

Canon 40D, 100mm f2.8 Macro
f3.2 @ 1/125th
ISO 640
AWB, Eval Metering, Handheld
Overcast skies and fading natural light

Whatever you did worked well here, absolutely stunning and full of drama :)

Yep Julie,
Agree with Fabs 100%. Like it's appearing out of the darkness!

It is so elegant Juli !!! I like it a lot !!! All about feel and this has it !!!!

Love the lighting -- lots of drama & emotion. Great choice on this flower with the folded petals!

Excellent Julie,
I like the simple elegance. The colors are very pleasing and the background brings the whole thing together...:D

Really, really lovely Julie!

Thank you everyone. I'm still considering upping the contrast of the lightest tones just a bit but I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out. I'm going to have to start photographing more after all these rains we're having!

Julie,
What a wonderful capture. I love the colors against that dark background. Simply stunning.

Sharna

Really gorgeous, Julie! Those colors are fantastic, I love black backgrounds, the folded petals and the raindrops - what's not to love here! Super job!