The Holiday Blues (And Pinks)

The poinsettia plants are quickly dropping leaves and since I'm home buried up to my boot tops in snow I thought it would be fun to play around with a few of them. I used a piece of white paper as my BG, sat it on the base of a chair and sat the chair in a sunny room next to my large glass door. I arranged the leaves and shot straight down using fill flash. I added a textured BG from Shadowhouse Creations and then masked off most of the leaves, leaving a bit of the BG to come through. I used Topaz Adjust's Contrast Pop setting to add a bit of detail and then used InFocus for the sharpening. Finished it off with a filter/render/lighting omni style light to add the natural vignette.

Jules,

I love the mood of this one created with the richness of the leaf colors and the bluish-gray background. The highlight around the edge of the leaves and the "spot" light at the top of the second leaf is wonderful. The textures are nice too. Beautifully done.

Richard

Jules, I like the way you arranged the leaves and the texture BG looks nice. I think the spotlight may be just a tad too bright in that one area.But just a teeny bit. I can see the signs of aging on the second petals edges and I find it very interesting. Wish I had saved mine to shoot.:S3:

Lovely arrangement, Jules. I like the colors, spotlight, and texture BG. I would remove the strong halo on the left side of the largest leaf. Very nicely done.

Very creative Jules, colors look good against BG, leaves almost have a silk-like look to them