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Macro and Flora Moderator
Optimal timing - pin sharp lovely shot. Initially I thought include the petals at the base ..but then the bee would be a little small and then beg the question is it a shot of the bee or the flower?
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Thanks Jonathan. Your thoughts are the same as mine on the composition. I am really staggered by the quality of this lens, both for distant and close up subjects.
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Good choice of crop, as I suspect the bottom petals would have been OOF. But you got wonderful DOF. Wonder about a subtle gradient burn at the bottom, with a lowering of contrast.
Agreement from me on that lens!
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Hi Diane. Thanks for your comments. I would love to try a subtle gradient burn if I knew how!! Do you mean to darken the bottom of the image a little?
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Yes -- in PS choose the Gradient tool (halfway down the toolbar). Hit Q to go into quick mask mode, and drag the cursor from the bottom up maybe 1/5 of the way into the canvas. (Hold Shift to make the transition level.) Let go and hit Q again to make the mask a selection. Then choose Curves or Levels and darken slightly. The layer will be fully editable at any time. As I add other local adjustments I often want to tweak previous ones a little.
If you want irregular shapes you can use a large brush to paint the mask.
You can also do it in ACR/LR but if I'm going to PS with an image I like waiting on things like this so they are editable.
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Thank you very much for that information Diane. Another nugget to be stored away for when I need it. Here is a RP using your suggestion.
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You're welcome! It looks like you have darkened the midtones here, thus bringing up saturation a little. Another option is to darken from the lighter tones. Make a Curves and pull the right end straight down, instead of pulling down the middle or darkening in a Levels.
And of course the shape of the darkened area (the mask) can be altered with the black and white brushes. More details here:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...uick-Mask-Mode
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BPN Member
You captured a very nice pose - and with excellent sharpness for hand holding at 1/160! Helpful suggestions by Diane, above. Very well done!
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Publisher
A real stunner with great techs and sharpness. Try a crop from the bottom to tighten up the composition. From just above the black mark on the leaf on the left, the one that intersects the frame edge. I am telling you that that would improve it 100%. a
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