Orange Poppy In Field

[Charles Wesley]

I took this image back in the 90's. Food this poppy on a hill side near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.
Not sure of this image. Using a special SF lens. Trying to get a sharp stamen area of the flower and a certain softness with the rest of the image. Cropped 20% of image. My BG looks strange to me.

Mamiya 645, Mamiya Secor 150 SF f/4.0 lens and Bogen tripod. Fuji Velvia 120 Medium Format film ( 60 mm by 45 mm ).

Epson Perfection 4990 Photo Scanner
PS/ CS4
Neat Image
Focal Blade
_________________________
Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com

[Anita Bower]

i think this lovely poppy looks a bit lost among its surroundings. i like the contrast of the orange against the green, and the way it emerges from it. i took the liberty of croping it and doing a couple of curves adjustments. didn't do more as i believe you like less processing rather than more. :)

[Charles Wesley]

Anita,

I like your result much better. Looks like a beautiful halo effect around the bloom. Hope I can replicate
all your different curves adjustments. Just don't know...

[Anita Bower]

Anita,

I like your result much better. Looks like a beautiful halo effect around the bloom. Hope I can replicate
all your different curves adjustments. Just don't know...

charles--i just did two separate general curves adjustments--brightening up the flower without affecting bg too much. nothing complicated. :)

[Charles Wesley]

Anita,

Thanks so much. After your explanation, I feel much better. Will do a curves adjustment tonight on the poppy...
________________
Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL

[Cindy Mead]

I really like how you isolated the poppy Charles, and the dreamy bg works well for me. I do like Anita's rework, it seems to breathe a bit more light and color into the blossom. A very evocative comp :)

[Ken Childs]

Hey Charlie, I agree with Anita that there's too much BG for this little flower. Her edit looks good but I'm still not sure about how dark the bottom is. Maybe lightening up that area so it's closer to what's above the flower would help. Or maybe just the opposite, darkening the area above the flower to create a stronger halo effect.

After typing the above, I decided to play with the Anita's edit and I like option 2 better. I used the burn tool at a low setting to darken the frame edges to the right, above and left of the flower and then used the dodge tool to lighten the area next to the upper left part of the flower. I left the original text so you could get an idea of how my feeble brain tackles a problem like this. :D

[Charles Wesley]

Ken,

I see the green imbalance you're talking about. Will have a try to PS tomorrow.
Thanks for the help...
___________________
Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Charles,
Well.....I thought I would never say this....but put all the room back that was cropped out....including some of yours! While I generally like tighter crops like Anita's.....I think all you have to do on the OP is put your image on a ROT position as she has!...more oom on the right! Sometimes having small objects in a large BG can be powerful......I feel lightening the bloom and adding the canvas back (if you have it)......will be just as effective! I really like the feel of this one!
PS May mute the area under bloom a touch more too!

[denise ippolito]

Charles, Lovely Poppy with a beautiful complimentary BG. I agree w/ the crop siggestion. And Roman's idea to mute the area under the bloom a bit. This is one terrific looking image. Congrats!:)

[Julie Kenward]

I liked the first post and really liked the repost and then saw Roman's comments and realized they both have merit. I think Anita's is a more traditional crop and perfectly executed but yours also gives a more "environmental view" and the solitary drop of coral sticking out of all that green is kind of beautiful. ;)

I would definitely adjust the brigher/darker areas in the larger image so nothing overwhelms the coral colored poppy.

[Stuart Frohm]

I like both presentations.
I respectfully recommend dimming the signature/copyright line.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Charlie, I like this one a lot! Not your average poppy image, but really something special with the visual effects of the filter and the nice contrast between BG and flower. I think I'll second Romans view. Just get the flower a little further away from the center of the image and you're set with one wonderful image!