We recently discovered Vintage Lenses and have been experimenting with them. This lens gives us Bokeh Hexagon Pearls at f/stops above 1.8.
Patrick, Gorgeous image and excellent processing. Soft, subtle colours and beautiful BG.
My only tiny nit is the brighter area behind the top right of the bloom. You might consider toning it down a fair bit.
Sandy
Thanks Sandy. I will soften it a bit to see how you like it. I left it because it was part of the pearl Bokeh this lens generates.
Patrick, this is a fine, artistic rendition. Amazing that itâs all in the lens and not a PS effect. I think it works very well as presented. You might also try a bid of dodging along the bottom and right to even out the brightness in the background.
It almost looks like a painting with the nice soft light, Patrick. Well done. I agree on evening the lighting on the background with dodging and burning if you can, but a fine photo as is.
Patrick
This is amazingly lovely. Put it on the wall!
One small thing, really minor; that white patch at the upper right of the flower really draws my eye. I wonder if cloning a little bit of the green onto it at a very low opacity might leave it there but not quite so bright? Minor thing. This is great as is. Well done.
A piece of painting I would say âŚbeautifully crafted.
Mark,
Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. The effect is not wholly attributed to the lens. The Oreston 50mm 1.8 makes hexagon bokeh pearls at f/2.1 and higher. From that, I used a present program, Great Gatsby to develop the pastel lower saturation effect.
I plan to experiment with the feedback I received from each of you regarding this image. Many thanks, again.
Many thanks Shirley. I appreciate the feedback. You and others have given me a lot to think about. If interested review the feedback I gave Mark Seaver about the lens and technique.
The shot will certainly stand up to dodging and burning.
Kathy, You and others have given me great constructive feedback. I have mulled all the feedback for several days, and following is the conclusion to which you together have led me:
You and others have helped me to refine my thinking about what this and future shots are all about. What is my objective? And is my approach wholly supporting it?
Many thanks for your thoughtful response that has helped me to think through what I am doing.
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Thank you Balan. You and the others who commented have contributed to my understanding of my goal for this photo and what I did and did not do to support that goal. My response to Kathy further explains what I have learned from the feedback.
Sandy,
Take a look at my response to Kathy, which is the result of the collection of great feedback I received for this photo. I am looking forward to posting others and participating more fully in NPN in the future.
Patrick - you received a lot of very good comments and suggestions.
We all have to develop our vision for the end product of an image we have captured.
To me, though, itâs not all this complicated. I see an image, take the image, look at it for a couple minutes full screen on a computer, and decide the basics of how to process it - whether it would be most effective colour or B&W, realistic or more artistic, and where exactly in between. best realistic, or where in-between.
I have very little free time, and I avoid using it to sit at the computer. I want to be outside traveling, gardening, or shooting.
Sandy
I keep coming back to this, Patrick, because Iâm a big fan of bokeh. I think the only thing I would do is burn down the parts next to the flower. Overall itâs a quite pleasing result.
Thanks Bill. Great suggestion. I plan to work on it tomorrow.
Patrick: Really nicely done from capture to processing. Very pleasing image.>=))>
PS: Itâs certainly OK to post images like this in M/CU but Flora might be a bit more appropriate.
Thank you Bill. Returning to npnâs new format has resulted in a few missteps.
I agree with most of what has been said here. I fooled around with the image a bit, but never quite found the means to âtone downâ the brighter bits. One of the things I do with almost all my images with sharp edges in the subject is to separate the subject and background into separate layers, which allows for different treatments for each. This is a bit more difficult here with some soft edges in the subject. However, I feel the BG can be made just a bit more subdued by judicious use of levels and some dodging and lightening. Or conversely, bringing up the brightness of the flowerâs midtones.
You might consider with your experiments with the lens just making a bokeh picture and using it as an overlay at reduced capacity.
A very worthy first effort. I am looking forward to more from you in this vein!
congrats on the EP, my friend!
Well done!
Hope youâll be able to be more active on NPN, with all your new toys!
Sandy
Sandy, thanks so much. I had no idea until I got your email. I will do my best to get back into the swing of things in NPN.
