Theme: Another frosted leaf

[Anita Bower]

f1.8, 50mm lens, Nikon D300, handheld.

I know the leaf "should" be pointing into the frame, not out.

I've played with this image off and on for a while. I sharpened the main leaf using: High Pass and CEP Tonal Contrast. I used Topaz Detail to bring out detail in the frost. I blurred the rest of the image using: Gaussian Blur, CEP Soft Focus, Vignette and Vignette Blur. I added two textures by Kim Klassen using Hard Light blend mode both times. I did some cloning and painting. I cropped some. I copied the image and flipped it horizontally and vertically and used just a bit of it to add detail to bottom left area.

I went back and forth over how much to blur the background.

[Dennis Bishop]

This has great color, and I like the amount of blur on the background -- especially in contrast to the angularity of the frost. It's also nice that the depth of field gave you a transition to the background with the leaves between the foreground one and those further away.

From what you said, I'm not sure if you want the leaf to be pointing into the frame. If you do, there's a reasonable way to accomplish that although you might, then, want to finesse the new background a bit. Here's what I did when playing around with it: Rotate the image 180 degrees. That puts the leaf in the lower left, still pointing out of the frame. Next is a couple steps with the crop tool. First, move the right handle in closer to move the leaf to the bottom right of what will be the new frame. The bottom is probably okay where it is, but move the top and left handles beyond the original frame to where you want it to be with the leaf pointing into the frame. That will leave a large transparent inverted L that needs a background.

Use the rectangular marquee tool to draw a rectangle on the part of the image that isn't transparent, leaving a narrow margin on the top and left (so a bit of the image extends into the transparent region). On the right and bottom, extend the rectangle to the edges. Now, do a Select>Inverse followed by an Edit>Fill with Content Aware chosen. That will put a version of the old background into the transparent region.

Your image, however, looks good no matter which way the leaf is pointing.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Anita, I don't mind the way the leaf is pointing. I love the soft BG with the pastel hues echoing the shape of the FG leaf. I wonder if some of the frost has some hot spots that could be tamed a bit. Could just be my eyes.

[Diane Miller]

Anita, this is beautiful! I don't mind the leaf pointing out of the frame, either. A simple option might be just to flip the canvas horizontal, so the eye is coming into the image in the LL at the leaf tip and then moving up to the OOF leaves behind it. (I think that's what Dennis meant when he said rotate 180 degrees, but that gives a different result.)

I think the BG is wonderful! Expanding the canvas and doing content-aware fill might work very well for such an abstract BG. Watch for subtle posterization artifacts, which could be easily cloned out.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you Dennis and Jackie.

Dennis: I followed all the steps you so kindly describe, until I got to the last one. Elements 10 does not have Content Aware fill. I believe Elements 12 does have Content Aware.

Jackie: I toned down the whites a bit after reading your comment.

I'll just leave the leaf pointing out!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Anita, I love the leaf pointing out and it seems like a natural progression with the leaves in the background. Nicely done

[Nancy Bell]

I really like the feeling of depth to this with those few smaller leaves at the base of the main leaf, and then the echoing of the same shape in the bkgd. Love the effect of the frost rimming the leaf, as well as on it, but the veins are still visible.

[Judy Howle]

Well processed Anita. I think the background blurring looks good and I love the frost on the leaf.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you Judy, Nancy and Cheryl.