Daffodil Blur II

[Julie Kenward]

Here's another one from yesterday's playing around with floral blurs. I set the flower in a vase in front of a very pale yellow wall that had outdoor side and back lighting. I set the flash to -1 and the exposure to +1. I had the ISO at 100 and the exposure at 5-6 seconds. I then handheld the camera and tried to not move...well, mostly I tried not to move but I did want a blur! ;)

I found that barely going side to side by just a tiny bit or rocking the camera side to side (again - just barely!) gave the best effects. Too much movement and you got a harsher shadow that wasn't all that pretty.

In post processing I rotated the flower to vertical and used the white balance eye dropper in Adobe Camera Raw to take the yellow wall to white. I then increased exposure even more depending on how high key I wanted the end result to be - usually another full stop. I used levels and curves in PS to keep the shadows from becoming overpowering and in some cases I had to back down on the yellow saturation because of the exposure time.

I really had a blast doing this and plan to try even more flower blurs as the season gets going. :D

[Gus Cobos]

Nicely done Julie, I like this, it simple, delicate and beautiful...the high-key effect puts it over the top in my book...congrats...:cool:

[denise ippolito]

Julie, One word-OUTSTANDING!

[Arthur Morris]

I like the soft colors, the high key effect, and the degree of blurring. Best of all I like the shadowed areas.

My preference would be for the stem to enter from the exact corner.