More $5.00 Flowers

[Julie Kenward]

I've been scarfing up $5.00 worth of flowers at the market each week to keep me from going winter crazy and last week I bought a huge lily with three blossoms. I did very little post-processing on this image until I took it into Fractalius and came up with this creation. I wanted it to be soft but bright; detailed but impressionistic. Would love to hear what you think.

Originally photographed with Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
f6.3 @ 1.50th, ISO 800, handheld in natural light
ACR/CS4/Fractalius

[Julie Brown]

Hey Jules, what is Fractalius? Is it a plug-in? Do you do all of your macro HH?

[Kerry Perkins]

Uh-oh, another Fractalius addict coming along!

Jules, I like the soft, warm glow from the center of the flower and the subtle effect you used! I think the glow along the edges of the petals would stand out more if the BG were a little subdued. I see very slight haloes around the stamens. That new 100mm macro looks like a sweet lens, and with IS you can HH at 1/50! Nice!

[Julie Kenward]

Kerry, those halos are probably from where I erased most of the Fract from the stamen ends so the details would show through better...I'll go back and double check those...thanks!

Julie, Fractalius IS a plug-in for Photoshop (not sure if it works with Elements...you'll have to check that out.) Google Redfield Fractalius and you should go right to it.

And yes, I do handhold all my macro - in fact I handhold 99.9% of all my images as I find it too difficult to be creative when I am locked down in a tripod. There's just something about having that camera in my hands that makes all the difference to me. Do I recommend others work this way? Not really...but it seems to work for me. I employ every steadying trick there is and I practice, practice, practice!

[Kent Wilson]

Wow! You certainly accomplished what you set out to do with this image. Soft, but sharp! Beautiful.

[Barbara Kile]

Beautifully framed and you did achieve your goal of detail plus softness. Super lovely!

[Nick Palmieri]

Real pleasing image Julie. I like the sort of "subdued" frac effect in this one a lot!

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks everyone! I am finally starting to feel like I'm getting a handle on the Fract program. Using it to create these floral images is just too much fun!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

super image Julie .. well done

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Love your comp and the light flower with the dark stamens (I hope that is what they are). If it were mine I wouldn't mind seeing just a bit more detail in them Jules. Just MHO.

[Ken Childs]

It's nice to see that someone can use Fractalius without going over the top. I sure cant! :)

It's still a lot of fun to play with.

[Anita Bower]

Beautiful! I like the glow, the composition, the colors. The neutral BG works well. Someone already mentioned the "halos" and wanting to see a bit more detail in the anther--and I agree.Lovely work!

[denise ippolito]

Jules, I love the softer side of Fractalius and this Stargazer Lily really shows it off well. Great job w/ this one! Agree w/ the halos.

[Christopher Miller]

Beautiful image, Jules! :) Love the softness, colors, and comp.